


Improvisational Outfits

by kitkatt0430



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One Shot Collection, Ridiculous outfits, Romance, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-10
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2018-02-24 20:10:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 37
Words: 80,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2594903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yuri knew traveling the world shouldn't have been conducive to acquiring so many things, but somehow he seems to have gathered quite a few new outfits... A story-dump for one or two shots inspired by various outfits and items gathered by all the characters during the game (as well as a few outfits, and items, that they should have gathered).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Improvisational

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Tales of Vesperia belongs to Namco. May they continue to make wonderful games to play.
> 
> Each chapter will be a stand-alone story, but since they're all running on the same theme I'll be collecting them here. Also... expect lots of smuttiness. Not in every story, but... my brain seems to be falling into the gutter more often than not with this couple.
> 
> Costume – Improvisationist

The costume should have been ridiculous. Really, it should have been. The pants were puffy, the red horns looked silly, and the shirt...

Flynn's throat went dry the instant he caught sight of Yuri in that shirt. Since Yuri's normal attire typically ended up with the shirt left undone to about mid-chest, Flynn had grown used to Yuri's extreme aversion to having anything around his neck. But the neckline on this shirt plunged to just about Yuri's belly-button, leaving everyone a tantalizing view of his stomach muscles... which were rather pleasingly defined.

Never before had Flynn realized that he could want to cover someone up and strip them completely all at once.

Not unsurprisingly, Flynn lost the plot of the play, staring at his dearest friend and thanking his lucky stars it was dark enough in the audience that no one could see how flushed he was or how his eyes only followed the villain of the piece. Not even Lady Estellise could manage to warrant more than a glance from Flynn. She looked cute in the Prince's outfit, but Yuri...

Flynn escaped as soon as he could, finding himself blinking and a bit shaken in the cool night air. The gymnasium was next to the Inn in Nam Cobanda, so Flynn quickly crossed the distance and managed, if only just, not to run to the room he was staying in. It was with relief that he shut the door and divested himself of his shoes and armor.

Sinking onto the bed, he threw an arm over his eyes and tried to understand what had just happened.

Ever since Yuri's brief disappearance after the events at Zaude, Flynn's feelings for his raven-haired friend had become... unmanageably weird. At first he'd been grief-stricken, terrified at the thought that Yuri might have died.

Though he'd believed the Schwann Brigade's reports that Yuri was alive and well, traveling with his guild and Lady Estellise once more, he'd still carried around a painful weight in his chest that nothing seemed to fix. At least, not until he saw Yuri show up, ready to save the day with Rita's latest invention in hand.

At that moment, Flynn had felt so unburdened and alive that he felt that he could take on all the monsters on the continent and win, if only Yuri would fight at his side. And though they didn't fight all the monsters on the continent, it sure as hell felt like they did. When it was over, he'd grabbed on to Yuri, trapping the other in a hug all while desperately wishing he wouldn't ever have to let go. Yuri's equally fierce embrace had made releasing him all that much harder.

Then, when Yuri decided to lead his group to Tarqaron to stop Duke and implement the alternative method for defeating the Adephagos, Flynn had insisted on going with them.

The Empire was changing because of them, just as they'd promised. Each had accomplished amazing goals, though they were only tangentially aware of the other's achievements. But this time they needed to work together and, after Zaude, Flynn had no intention of letting Yuri out of his sight for too long.

He'd stuck to Yuri like glue since leaving Aurnion, enduring the occasional 'Mother Flynn' joke. In turn, Yuri tolerated Flynn's sudden tendency to reach out to touch Yuri's hand or arm or hair... just to reassure himself that Yuri was really there and not dead. This was real, not some horrible trick his mind came up with to cope with an unbearable loss.

But tonight...

Oh, god, tonight.

Flynn hadn't just stared at Yuri; he'd been ogling the man. Only the fact that other people were in there had stopped him from going up on stage and running his hands over Yuri's tantalizingly exposed skin.

Though he'd been attracted to others before, this was the first time Flynn could remember feeling outright lustful towards anyone. Except this wasn't just anyone, this was his best friend.

Burying his face in the pillow, Flynn let out a groan of frustration. His shifting feelings could end up ruining their longstanding relationship. If Yuri found out...

“The play wasn't that bad, was it?”

Oh no...

“You practically ran out as soon as the lights came on after we took our bows,” Yuri continued.

No no no no no...

The door shut with a loud thud. “Flynn... are you feeling okay?”

Flynn looked up and nodded. “Yeah, I'm fine.” He immediately wanted to take back the statement. Yuri was still in-costume, though the red horns had already come off. The horns and Yuri's normal clothes were tossed onto one chair while Yuri slouched onto another.

Yuri then reached for his boots, giving Flynn a rather nice view of his abs. “Then, if you're feeling fine, that goes back to the play. Was it really so horrible?”

“N-no,” Flynn stammered out, his face growing hot as he grew flushed and flustered.

“Then why'd you run off like that? You've spent the last week all but plastered to my side; it was a little disconcerting to see you leave me behind like that.”

“I...” Flynn floundered, not knowing what to say. It'd be a bad idea to tell the truth, but Yuri could always tell when he lied. “Uh...”

Yuri's shirt fell open a little further, showing more of his stomach... including a scar Flynn didn't recognize. He'd thought that he knew all of Yuri's worst injuries... Estelle hadn't mentioned having to heal Yuri from a wound so severe and it was certainly the sort of news she'd know he'd want.

So when...?

“Where did that come from?” Flynn asked.

“Don't try to change the subject,” Yuri said teasingly. He started to say something else, but Flynn cut him off.

“This is more important,” Flynn insisted. “That scar... when did you get it? It's hard to tell from here, but it looks recent.” Rolling over to the edge of the bed, Flynn sat and then stood.

Self-consciously, Yuri pressed a hand over his shirt where the scar was, blocking it from view. “Yeah, it's... it's recent.” He paused and then shook his head. “It's not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal?” Flynn walked over and knelt in front of the chair his friend sat on. Then he batted Yuri's hand out of the way before pushing the sleeves of Yuri's shirt off the raven-haired man's shoulders. Yuri let out a shuddering breath as Flynn's fingers brushed lightly over the scar-tissue. “Did this... happen at Zaude?”

“Yes...” Yuri's voice shook slightly, calling Flynn's attention to Yuri's face. His cheeks had taken on a pink tinge and suddenly Flynn was aware of of just how presumptuous his actions were.

“No one said anything about you being injured during the fight,” Flynn murmured, withdrawing his hand. “How did this happen?”

“When I fell...” Yuri sighed, looking away. “That's when I was hurt.”

“By the shards of the crystal?” Flynn asked sceptically. Parts of the Apatheia had splintered off when it crushed Alexei, but it was doubtful that the scar on Yuri's stomach could have been caused by those shards. It looked like some sort of sharp implement caused the wound. Something like a sword or a knife...

“I won't lie to you, Flynn.”

“But you don't want to tell me, either.”

“It was a mistake,” Yuri insisted. “It... she...” he trailed off and bit his lip.

“She...” Flynn echoed, not liking where this was going. “Lady Estellise would never hurt you,” he said flatly. “I don't know Rita well, nor Judith, but they were with Lady Estellise and the others. They took your disappearance very hard as well. But your friends weren't the only ones up there.”

“Flynn, she thought she was doing the best thing for you...”

“Stop excusing her!”

Yuri flinched. Very quiet, he whispered, “I'm sorry, Flynn.”

“She tried to kill you and you didn't say anything. Why the hell didn't you tell me?”

“I...”

Not paying attention, Flynn rose back to his feet and began to pace. “I spent days with the fleet, searching for you, Yuri, and the person responsible for taking you away from me stood at my side the entire damn time. I stopped searching personally because she promised to take over and find you herself. What would have happened if she had found you out there? Would she have just... finished the job?”

“Flynn...”

“When Leblanc told me he saw you, it seemed impossible that you could really be okay. You'd been missing for so long I'd been forced to call off the search. No one wanted to admit it, but it seemed likely that you'd drowned and your body was... somewhere... somewhere under the water...” his voice choked off.

“Flynn, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.” Turning to face Yuri, Flynn saw that he'd pulled the sleeves back up over his shoulders. He was looking down, his expression distraught. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“Oh, Yuri...” Flynn pressed a hand against his forehead, watching his friend. “She's the one who hurt me. I just don't understand why you never said a word. How could you stand to see her without telling everyone what she did?”

“You really don't understand the way people look at you. Flynn...” Yuri trailed off for a moment, clearly searching for the right way to express what had been going through his head when he'd decided to... ignore what Sodia had done to him. “When she saw you push me out of the way and you were injured for it, she blamed me for that injury.”

“It was Alexei who...”

“I know,” Yuri interrupted softly. “Think about it from her point of view, though. The first time she met me, I was a wanted criminal and you didn't arrest me.”

“You were technically in Lady Estellise's custody.”

“No one really saw it that way. Not even you. I then proceeded to ignore your advice and lead Estelle, along with one of Aspio's brightest mages, in an illegal search of Ragou's home. That he turned out to be a child-torturing sociopath doesn't excuse what I did. Half the time, both in Capua Nor and Capua Torim, we were arguing. The next time she saw me, I was leading my guild in running your blockade in the Weasand of Cados... and then in Nordipolica we had that rather spectacular fight in which I called you on blindly following Alexei, you called me on murdering Ragou and Cumore... and we both said a lot of things we're not exactly proud of.”

Yuri hesitated and then added, “I could never do it, you know that right?”

“What?”

“I could never kill you. I'd sooner kill myself than even try.”

“Don't... don't say things like that.” Flynn sat back down on the bed, dazed. “Don't ever say things like that.”

“I'm a murderer you still can't bring yourself to arrest, Flynn. Sodia has a point about me being a bad influence on you.”

“His Highness is pushing through another full pardon for you,” Flynn objected weakly.

“She was trying to protect you from yourself. Getting hurt because of me was just the last straw. It wasn't until she'd already stabbed me that it even occurred to her what she was doing entailed becoming a murderer herself or that what she was doing would cause you to suffer as well. She just wanted me out of your life.”

“So, you're saying that you, what? Sympathize with her decision to kill you? Yuri, I still don't understand why you didn't say anything about this before.”

“I... I just... everything's been moving so fast. It's insane, Flynn. There's an octopus in the sky, for god's sake. I'm not used to having so many responsibilities... and I'm exhausted. My side hurts when we're out there fighting for hours straight. Today is probably the last bit of downtime we're going to have before having to stop Duke and we're probably going to have to fight him...

“I don't even know if I can do that, Flynn. Duke saved my life at Zaude... took care of me during the week everyone spent looking for me. I was so out of it the whole time I barely remember any of it... but...”

Flynn rose from the bed and moved back to kneel in front of Yuri in order to pull his friend out of the chair and into a hug, rocking slowly as Yuri's almost panicked breathing slowed back to normal. “I'm sorry,” Flynn murmured, running his fingers through Yuri's hair. He hadn't realized how much the stress was stretching Yuri thin. Tightening his hold slightly, Flynn pressed a kiss against Yuri's forehead. “We'll find a way to convince Duke to help us... or at least not hinder our attempts,” Flynn vowed. “I can't imagine he really wants to destroy humanity or...”

“Or he wouldn't have bothered saving me,” Yuri finished, burrowing against Flynn's chest and giving a contented sigh.

“It was a relief,” Yuri said suddenly. “Putting the burden of telling you on Sodia was a relief for me. Because it was supposed to be one less issue I'd have to worry about. I'm not really good enough to be the one who stands at your side, you know. Not anymore. It's the one thing I agree with Sodia on.”

“Shouldn't that be for me to decide?” Flynn muttered grumpily. “If you won't be the one who stands with me, I'd rather be alone.”

Yuri didn't say anything to that, so they just sat there for a while, Flynn still idly running his fingers through long, silky strands of hair.

“Mmm... You're gonna make me fall asleep like this,” Yuri finally spoke up. He blinked up at Flynn sleepily.

Their faces were so close... all Flynn had to do was lean forward a little for their lips to meet. He shouldn't. Surely it was a bad idea...

The only person he wanted to be at his side was Yuri. There would never be anyone else. He wasn't sure he was even capable of feeling like this about anyone else.

He closed the distance.

Flynn felt Yuri grow completely still. He pulled back, heart thundering in his chest, utterly certain he screwed everything up. Yuri stared at him for a long moment, wide awake and wide-eyed with shock.

Hesitantly, Yuri brought his hand up, fingertips lightly brushing his lips. “You kissed me.”

“Yeah...” Flynn responded warily.

“Huh.”

Arms wrapped around Flynn's shoulders and a hand snaked up into blond hair. Yuri tugged Flynn down into another kiss, but this time it wasn't one-sided in the slightest. This kiss was slow, growing bolder and more passionate as each sought to deepen it.

When, finally, they parted for air – foreheads pressed together, eyes half-lidded, breath mingling as they panted through saliva slicked lips – Yuri murmured something about moving to a bed. Flynn agreed wholeheartedly, looking forward to making his earlier fantasy a reality... by peeling the ridiculous demon outfit off of Yuri.


	2. It's the Ears that are the Problem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – No ownership claimed or implied.  
> Items – Rita's cat ears & Yuri's bunny ears

It started when Rita brought out the cat ears again. Yuri didn't care about the tail and the outfit itself was cute, but not particularly alluring to him. Those ears, though...

There was something about those ears...

So he snitched the ears one day.

Rita complained about the loss and Yuri asked her if, maybe, she'd left them at Estelle's place. She didn't answer, but she did turn bright red and dash off towards the castle. Karol couldn't stop laughing.

Yuri did feel bad about taking his friend's cat ears, but those things were driving him nuts. He'd get them back to her eventually, but first...

“Yuri, I'm not wearing these.” Flynn held out the cat ears with a highly skeptical expression on his face.

“Oh, come on...”

“They're Rita's. You should give them back.”

“I will,” Yuri promised, plucking the ears out of Flynn's hands and putting them on Flynn's head. “Later. Much later.” He dropped his hands on top of Flynn's to keep him from grabbing the ears. “Mmmm... you look cute like this,” Yuri told him, drinking in the adorable sight of Flynn with a flushed, embarrassed expression, the cat ears poking out of blond, messy hair.

Leaning forward, Yuri captured Flynn's lips in a greedy kiss, edging him towards the bed.

Flynn turned his head away, breathing hard. “I look ridiculous.” He groaned softly as Yuri started nibbling at his neck. “Yuri...”

“Come on, Flynn,” Yuri purred. “For me?”

“You... really like it that much?”

“Yes.”

“Okay... I'll wear the ears, but...” Flynn smirked and sat back on the bed. “Where are your ears?”

“My ears? I don't... oh.” Yuri crossed quickly to his drawers and fished the bunny ears out of the bottom one. Putting them on, one of the floppy black ears fell in his face. “So, does this make me the innocent little rabbit being stalked by a hungry cat?”

“I think I'm the one being stalked by a hungry rabbit,” Flynn teased. “Cats devouring rabbits does make more sense, though.” He stood up and prowled across the room to where Yuri stood and pushed him against the wall. Nuzzling Yuri's neck, Flynn deliberately let the ears tickle their way down before biting his shoulder. Not hard enough to draw blood, but it would definitely leave a bruise.

Yuri's head thudded back against the wall and he moaned, enjoying Flynn's sudden aggressiveness. Staring at Flynn through half lidded eyes, he groaned as Flynn undid his belt and slid off his vest. “Thought you weren't...” a tongue started laving his chest. “Unh... thought you weren't interested in...” he trailed off with a whine when Flynn's teeth latched onto a nipple, the shirt pushed aside.

“I just wanted to get you in the rabbit ears,” Flynn told him, unbuttoning Yuri's shirt and pants. “Also, Rita's not getting these ears back.” He slid Yuri's pants down with his underwear. “You'll have to buy her new ones.”

“Wha-why?” Yuri shuddered, his hips bucking against Flynn's hold on him while Flynn's sinful tongue laved the underside of his erection.

“With everything I'm gonna do to you while wearing these ears... all the things you're gonna do to me...” Flynn kissed the swollen tip and looked up, a truly sinfully smug expression on his face. “Are you really gonna be able to stand seeing her wear these later on?”

Yuri's legs nearly gave out when Flynn swallowed him. “Fuck... fuck...” he moaned, his thoughts blanking out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rita's birthday was a few weeks later and she loved Yuri's presents: coquettes, a few new pieces of equipment for her lab... and a new pair of cat ears.


	3. Seduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Tales of Vesperia is not mine nor do I profit from it monetarily.
> 
> Outfit – Theoretical 'seduction' outfit

“You know... I don't think women are that guard's type,” Judy interrupted. “We walked passed him earlier and I'm pretty sure he was staring at you, Yuri.”

“I wasn't paying attention...” Yuri frowned and glanced back. “Are you sure it's the same guard?”

“Yes.” Judy nodded. “He was definitely checking you out. You'd be the perfect distraction.”

Crossing his arms, Yuri huffed and then shrugged. “Yeah, sure, I'll give it a shot.” He turned to go walk up to the guard when Judy grabbed his arm.

“You're not going to try and seduce him looking like that, are you?”

“You already said he was staring at me. So unless that was 'uninterested staring'...”

“Well, yes, he's interested, but not enough to leave his post for you. That'll take something special. Something... sexy.” Judy smirked at Yuri's uncomfortable expression. “You have tried seducing people before, right Yuri? I mean... you're not a bad flirt.”

“There's never been anyone I've been interested in seducing,” Yuri muttered, glaring at her. It was a lie, but hopefully not an obvious one. He wanted to seduce Flynn... and he had been seduced once, by a guy who'd looked a lot like Flynn. They'd both been pretty drunk and, unless his name had actually been Guy, Yuri wasn't even sure he remembered his name.

She raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. Unfortunately Estelle didn't have the same amount of tact.

“You've never had a girlfriend, Yuri?” Estelle was wide-eyed with surprise.

“Wow...” Karol sounded shocked too. “I figured you'd be really popular with the girls, Yuri.”

“Girls aren't what I'm interested in,” he admitted, trying not to wince when Estelle's face fell slightly. He'd hoped her crush on Flynn hadn't transferred to him. “Not really interested in most guys either.”

“Most guys... so there are a few you are interested in?” Judy teased, leaning in with obvious amusement.

He rolled his eyes. “Obviously. Look, how much am I going to hate you for whatever outfit you have in mind?”

“Oh... don't be like that. Maybe you'll like it.” She smirked.

Yuri had to remind himself that killing Judy would be an inappropriate response to whatever she was planning.

* * *

The long black stockings, the purple skirt to his ankles with a slit up to his thigh, the black blouse over a stuffed bra... and his hair was curled around the ends. From a distance he looked like a girl. Even up close, he was easy to mistake.

“What's the point of dressing up like a woman if he was staring at me before?” Yuri wobbled slightly on the purple heels, though quickly finding his balance; they were only about two inches high at most since Yuri had threatened to stab her in the eyes with the stiletto heeled boots she'd first tried to foist on him.

Judy had thought it was hilarious when he made the threat, but she'd set them aside in favor of more manageable shoes just the same.

“You look really good in drag, Yuri,” Judy assured him, laughing when he scowled at her. “Oh come on, smile. Trust me, this is perfect.”

“You do look pretty, Yuri.” Estelle's face was pink and she couldn't quite look him in the eye. “Really pretty.”

“Yeah, I'd almost think you were a girl,” Karol agreed, ducking when Yuri reached out to swat him.

“Whatever. I'm going to go distract the guard.” Yuri stalked off through the Inn and out into the chill air. Taking a deep breath, he slowed his walk and tried putting a little swish into his step. He stopped when the swish nearly made him lose his balance. However, once he got near the guard, he purposely stumbled into him.

“Are you alright?” The knight reached out to steady him.

“Yeah... I'm still getting used to the shoes.” Yuri looked up sheepishly and met the guard's eyes. The other man had pushed up the faceplate on his helmet to reveal clear blue eyes and straight blond hair.

“You... you're that guy from earlier...” the knight stammered. “But you're...”

Yuri felt his face flush, suddenly feeling ridiculous again when face to face that this guard was... well... actually his type. “Well, sometimes... it's kind of nice to feel pretty,” he said. “I don't wear things like this a lot,” which was true, “but sometimes...”

“You do look pretty.” The knight blushed and looked away.

“My friends don't know I do this, though. I mean... it's kind of strange isn't it?” Yuri felt a little more confident now, seeing that the guard seemed to find Yuri's new look attractive. It was almost a shame they were going to have to clobber this guy.

“No! I mean... you look good in that, so it can't be strange... not really.”

Smiling a little, Yuri leaned back against the wall. “Umm... all you have to do is watch the lift, right?”

“Yes...?”

“Well...” Yuri pointed to a dark corner where Judy was supposed to waiting with Estelle and Karol. “You could also watch from there, right? I just... I'm not sure I'm ready to be standing out in the open like this for too long... but I like talking with you.”

“Well... I'm supposed to stand here, but I'm sure I can watch just fine from there.” Yuri laughed when the knight held out his arm to escort Yuri. “This way I can help you stay steady on those shoes.”

"They are harder to walk on than ladies make them look,” Yuri declared with a grin, sliding his hand around the offered arm.

As soon as they made it into the dark, Judy came up behind them and smacked the knight in the back of his head. Yuri let go as the guy dropped to the ground.

“Karol gets to be the knight,” Yuri declared, kicking off the shoes. “I've played dress up enough for one evening.”

* * *

Several months later, Yuri had – mostly – managed to put his one night of cross-dressing out of his mind. Then Flynn was helping him sort through his things at the Inn and found the skirt.

“Did... some of Judy's things get mixed in with yours?”

Yuri turned at the question and found himself face to fabric with the long purple skirt. “No... that... uh... there was a guard that needed distracting... it's a long story.” Yuri blushed and yanked the skirt out of Flynn's hands.

“You... distracted a guard. By dressing like a woman?”

Crossing his arms, Yuri scowled and looked away. “It was Judy's idea. And she must have left these here for me as some sort of demented gift since I certainly didn't want to keep them.”

Flynn chuckled softly.

“What?” Yuri turned to glare at his friend. “What's so funny, Flynn?”

“I just can't really imagine you in a skirt, that's all. Or this,” he added, holding up the padded bra.

Yuri's blush deepened as Flynn started laughing outright. “Oh god... give me that,” he snatched it away. Looking at the bra for a long moment, Yuri smiled slyly. “You know what? How about I show you?”

Flynn's laughter cut off with a small choked sound. “Show me?” he echoed.

“Yeah, sure. Everyone said I looked pretty. Might as well show off a little.” Yuri smirked and then kicked Flynn out the door so he could change alone.

Once he was dressed, though, Yuri almost couldn't bring himself to open the door. It was with shaking hands that he grabbed the doorknob and forced himself to let Flynn see.

“So... last time Judy attacked my hair with a curling iron, but everything else is basically the same.” Yuri stepped back unsteadily. “What do you think?”

“U-uh...” Flynn's eyes ran roved all over him and Yuri shivered. “Good. You look good.” His voice was strange. Yuri didn't think he'd ever heard that pitch in his tone before. “W-why'd you have to wear this to distract a guard, though? I mean... you always look good... I mean...” Flynn's cheeks turned pinker as he looked away, embarrassed.

“Honestly, I didn't get it either,” Yuri shut the door behind Flynn and shrugged. “Judy was pretty insistent, though, and she got Estelle in on picking out the clothes. About the only thing I got to veto was the six-inch high boots they originally picked out. I'd have probably broken my ankle in those. All I had to do was get the knight to a dark corner so Judy could clobber him in the head with her spear.”

“I didn't need to hear that part,” Flynn muttered.

“He was in Cumore's brigade. The guy was fine; woke up minus his armor and no way of explaining what happened to his squad, but otherwise the worst he suffered was a headache.”

“So... you just... talked to him.”

“Yup.”

“Wearing that outfit.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Did he...” Flynn looked down and took a few steps forward, closing most of the distance between them. “Did he try anything with you?”

“No...” Yuri frowned. “Though he followed me to a dark corner; I'm sure he wanted to.”

“But he didn't.” Flynn sounded relieved as he reached out to toy with Yuri's hair. “Bet he wanted to do this,” Flynn murmured and then leaned forward, pressing his lips against Yuri's.

Freezing in shock, Yuri couldn't quite believe what was happening. Flynn was kissing him.

_Flynn was kissing him._

Then Flynn started to pull away and Yuri's brain clicked back on. He surged forward, keeping their lips locked as he put his arms around Flynn's shoulders. After that was a blur of tongues and lips and tasting for the first time what he'd wanted for years. He didn't notice, until Flynn was sliding it off under his shirt, that Flynn had undone his bra.

When he tossed the stuffed thing away, he ran his hands down the outside of Yuri's once again flat chest. His nails slid lightly over the material of the shirt, sending shivers down his spine and eliciting a very unmanly squeak when Flynn went over his nipples.

“That's better,” Flynn declared before dragging Yuri into another kiss.

“So,” Yuri pulled away with a gasp, “you like the skirt.”

“Looks good on you,” Flynn told him, pressing their foreheads together. “But...”

“But what?” Yuri grinned. “You've just been kissing me while I'm in a skirt, Flynn. Don't get shy on me now.”

“I think I'd like the skirt better if I could take it off of you.”

“Mmm... let's give it a try then, shall we?” Yuri moaned as Flynn's mouth descended onto his neck, nipping and kissing and licking...

Maybe having a few skirts in the wardrobe wasn't such a bad thing after all...


	4. Cleaning Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – *Insert witty banter explaining why I own nothing and disclaim everything here.*
> 
> Outfit – Yuri's hot springs outfit

Flynn liked to visit the Vesperia guild house on cleaning days.

Yuri would wear a pair of bright yellow pants that seemed as if they ought to slip right off; if the drawstring was just a little bit looser... but the pants clung to Yuri's hips instead, seeming to taunt Flynn whenever he stared.  Yuri typically paired the pants with a very loose white tank top with a blue emblem on it; the strips of fabric that held up the shirt would often slide down Yuri's shoulders in a most distracting manner... at least in Flynn's opinion. He would also tie his hair back with a bandana or pull it up into a Rhygbaro tail. Flynn particularly liked it when Yuri's hair was up... there was just something enticing about being able to see the back of Yuri's neck.

It was a very little known fact that Yuri's neck was particularly sensitive to touch. Flynn made use of that knowledge whenever he could get away with it... which was fairly often.

On cleaning days, though, Flynn would join in with the others – above Karol's protests and that he and Lady Estellise were guests and shouldn't have to do any work – and they'd all have fun: laughing, joking, and scouring places where the dust was getting particularly thick. They'd air out closets and make piles in the front room – closed sign in place and front door locked, just in case someone didn't get the hint – for things to throw away or donate. As the day would wind down, though, they'd each disappear into their own rooms. Lady Estellise would follow Rita and Flynn would follow Yuri.

Ostensibly, they were supposed to be cleaning out the bedrooms, but...

Flynn liked to come up behind Yuri and slide his arms loosely around Yuri's hips. He'd press a kiss against a shoulder bared by a strap that had fallen to the side – or perhaps been lightly brushed out of his way – and drink in the smell of Yuri.

"Mmmm..." Yuri would always press back into the touch, tilting his head to the side to offer better access. "I thought we were supposed to be working."

"Break time." Flynn never liked to waste a chance to hear the sounds Yuri only made when certain places were kissed and licked and overloaded with attention. So, tightening his grip on Yuri's waist and sliding his other hand under Yuri's shirt to splay across his chest, Flynn moved his lips to the spot on Yuri's neck – just behind Yuri's ear and beneath his hair – that he knew would elicit some of those delicious sounds...

"Unnnnnnh..." Yuri's gasps were addictive and the noises that followed as Flynn teased always went straight to his cock. The whimpers and growls started when Yuri had enough teasing... at least at that spot anyway.

They'd edge into the bed, Flynn taking his time in stripping off Yuri's clothes. He'd make sure to go over every single place on Yuri's body he knew of that would generate noisy, needy pleasure. Though Flynn was always on the lookout for new nuances and overlooked places where he could surprise Yuri with unexpected bursts of heat and arousal.

Yuri always made it clear that he loved Flynn's thoroughness, but sometimes it went to slowly and Yuri would start trying to shove down Flynn's own pants – Flynn didn't always notice being divested of his shirt, too wrapped up in Yuri to care that the fabric would wind up on the floor somewhere, but it was hard not to notice when hands started messing with the cloth over his crotch – and Flynn would revel in the sound of otherwise uncharacteristic pleading.

"Oh... oh god, Flynn, please. Want you inside me so bad... Flynn... Flynn..."

Only he got to see Yuri so unwound and beautiful. Only Flynn got to see him covered in sweat, laid out on the bed, his hair halo-ed around him, his mouth opened to pant for breath, hands twisting in the sheets or scraping his fingernails down Flynn's back as he fell apart into a needy, desperate mess...

Flynn could never deny Yuri when he got like this. Though it certainly helped that they both wanted the same thing at that point.

Still, he'd continue to take his time, slicking up his fingers and sliding them inside of Yuri. That was when Yuri would really get noisy, rocking against Flynn's fingers and begging for more. But Flynn's favorite sound was the quiet little 'oh' that he'd make when Flynn was finally inside him all the way. They'd freeze for a moment, face to face, wrapped up in the feeling of being connected.

Then Flynn would move and Yuri's hips would rise and fall in rhythm with his own, snapping upward to draw Flynn in deeper, harder, at just that right angle that...

"Ah! Ahn! Flynn!" Yuri's voice would hit a pitch a little higher than usual. More than anything, Yuri's voice gave away how close he was to completion.

Flynn would be just as desperate at the point, peppering Yuri's face and neck and mouth with kisses in between moaning Yuri's name over and over.

In the stillness afterwards, Flynn would reach over to grab something to clean them up with. Yuri's shirt, more often than not, would wind up moping away sweat and cum. Somehow, Yuri always managed to get it clean, but... Flynn would always remember how dirty it was the last time he'd seen it.

That was another reason he liked seeing Yuri wear the shirt on cleaning days. It reminded him of how they'd messed that shirt up the last time he'd seen Yuri wear it... and want nothing more than to drag Yuri away from everyone else in order to do it all over again.

Really, it was a wonder Flynn always managed to wait at all.


	5. Reflection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Though there are many things that are mine, ownership of Tales of Vesperia is not one of them.
> 
> Outfit – True Knight

Yuri always felt a bit like a fraud when he wore the armor.  
  
Technically the armor was a gift from Ioder, but the one who'd given it to him was Flynn and the one who smuggled it into his things when he wasn't paying attention was Estelle. Yuri told himself that was completely Judith's influence on her and not his in the least. He'd almost managed to convince himself, too.  
  
When Yuri finally realized what it was that was weighing down his pack, he couldn't quite bring himself to throw it out. When they got to the Inn that evening, he'd even tried it on in the privacy of his room. The red, gold, and grays looked flattering on him and when he'd tied up his hair, Yuri had felt like he was looking at someone else entirely.  
  
This someone was attractive, honorable, and just. This someone could stand at Flynn's side and not worry about tainting the blond with the blood on his hands. This someone was worthy of being thought of as a hero... and this someone couldn't possibly be Yuri Lowell of the lower quarter.  
  
Still unwilling to simply throw out the armor, Yuri had quietly packed it away at the bottom of his bag and did his best to forget it was there.  
  
After the Adephagos was defeated, however, Yuri had to face the consequences of the murders he'd committed. Unfortunately, the consequences were nothing like what Yuri had expected. Instead of having Flynn arrest him when he returned to Aurnion, Ioder came out to greet them with Flynn, Natz, Harry, and Kaufman all standing at his side. After congratulating them on their success, Yuri had been taken aside by Ioder and the three guild leaders and they informed him of the nexus of politics his fate had become entangled within.  
  
Having committed two murders, Yuri was wanted for trial and imprisonment by the Empire. That much, Yuri had expected. However, there was a strong movement within the council to pardon Yuri's crimes – a movement with Ioder sided with – in light of Yuri's actions in rescuing Estelle, helping to defeat Alexei, and destroying the Adephagos. The movement was currently not quite strong enough to ensure Yuri's pardon would pass on those merits alone, but there were other political pressures at work.  
  
In order for the peace between the Empire and the Guilds to work, the Empire required at least one official representative of the Guilds to be present in Aurnion and able to travel to Zaphias as needed. Since Brave Vesperia was respected by Pallestralle largely due to the events surrounding Belius' death and their actions in protecting the city from the smaller Adephagos that attacked, Pallestralle wanted the representative to be a member of that guild, meaning Yuri, Karol, or Judith. The other members of their guild were unofficial and didn't exactly qualify, though of the three Natz believed Yuri to be the best qualified.  
  
Kaufman agreed that Brave Vesperia would be the preferable choice and Yuri was also her specific pick of the three. She wanted it made clear to the council that Brave Vesperia was considered to be a guild allied with her own and that any legal actions taken against members of ally guilds would be scrutinized closely.  
  
Harry explained that Yuri's actions as the Don's second had earned him the respect of all of Altosk, as well as most Union-affiliated guilds. Because Yuri had been willing to stand up when everyone else hesitated, there wasn't a single person in Dahngrest who didn't know his name. If Yuri was arrested for murder, then Ragou and Cumore's actions would be made public by the guilds. It was doubtful any guildsmen would disapprove of Yuri's actions, given the circumstances. If Yuri were to be executed, the guilds would look less favorably of overtures of equality or peace from the Empire.  
  
Yuri, of course, had a few choice words about what he was hearing. Kaufman offered him lessons from a few sailors she knew, that way he could be really foulmouthed the next time he got that upset. She also laughed when he glared at her.  
  
So Yuri was pardoned, but he was also stuck in the role of representative. Raven was eventually appointed as a secondary representative, but it was Yuri who was expected to do most of the work while Raven was there more to advise him.  
  
He could still do guild work, but he couldn't roam too far.  
  
There were also court functions that, since Yuri was practically an ambassador, he was required to attend. The armor, once buried at the bottom of the bag, was brought out again. He had to wear it with a smile and feign confidence that, wearing the armor, he did not feel.  
  
Flynn would watch Yuri on those nights, worry obvious in his blue eyes.  
  
Yet... it was getting easier to wear the armor lately. It was getting easier to look in a mirror and see that maybe he was more than just a murderer.  
  
 _"It's not that the armor makes you look different, Yuri. It's that, with the armor on, you see a different side of yourself. I know that makes you uncomfortable; you don't like people treating you like you're special or some kind of hero."_  
  
 _"I'm not a hero, Flynn!"_  
  
 _"But you are. Heroes are just ordinary people who do extraordinary things, Yuri. I'd certainly say that fits you."_  
  
 _"There are others who'd have done the same..."_  
  
 _"No. No, they wouldn't have. Sometimes it's so difficult to understand you. You'd think it would be easier for me, since we've known each other for so long. But sometimes... sometimes it seems like I've had an easier time learning to understand and accept Lady Estellise's decisions than yours. I want so much for you... for you to get the credit and praise you deserve. I want people to see you like I do... to care about you as much as I do._  
  
 _"I get it now, though, that having others see you that way isn't really important. What I need is for you to see yourself like I do. You have this need to protect people, but sometimes it leads you to do things that terrify me, like when you killed Ragou and Cumore. Doing that... you scared yourself too, I think. Only it's that you're afraid to see that you don't just kill to protect. You go to all kinds of trouble to help others... like rescuing children from dungeons and monsters or convincing Duke not to give up on humanity just yet._  
  
 _"I can't always agree with your way of handling things. But I can always respect your motivations because that need to help and protect... that part of you is beautiful Yuri, and that part is also what defines you. Maybe one day, you'll even be able to see that side of yourself in the mirror and recognize it's still you."_  
  
Right now, Yuri still couldn't quite accept what he saw in himself when he wore that armor. But when Flynn stood beside him, he felt like maybe Flynn was right. Maybe one day, he'd recognize his own reflection.


	6. Meow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – I feel redundant at this point... er... you know what goes here, okay?
> 
> Item – Rita's cat ears again (because I think that one skit is hilarious)

The day was finally over.  
  
Meetings all morning and one big meeting all afternoon at left Flynn with a stack of paperwork to fill out that he usually took an entire morning to complete. Four hours worth of paperwork, to be exact. He'd rerouted as much of it to Sodia as he could get away with, but that still left Flynn finishing up at eleven-forty-five.  
  
So it was a very tired Flynn – dreading his six o'clock alarm – that trudged into his room towards the bed. He was thinking of putting off his shower until the morning and how nice it felt to just drop his armor on the ground (usually he put it away nicely, but he was just too tired to care) and wanting to pass out the instant his head hit the pillow.  
  
It wasn't until Flynn started climbing into bed that he realized there was someone else there. A someone... wearing cat ears.  
  
Blinking sleepily up at Flynn, Yuri smiled and glanced around. Then his eyes lit up a little, as though he'd remembered something amusing, and he pushed down the blankets to reveal he was already completely naked.  
  
Despite his exhausted state, Flynn felt a heated stirring of interest.  
  
"Did you take those from Rita?" Flynn asked, kicking off his boots, socks, and pants. Then, pulling off his shirt, he finished getting into bed.  
  
He hoped Yuri would take the fact that he left his boxers on as a sign that he was too tired to do anything tonight.  
  
"Meow?"  
  
"Yuri?"  
  
"Meow." Yuri grinned impishly and then straddled Flynn, gently pushing him down against the sheets.  
  
"You've got to be," Flynn's breath hitched as Yuri licked his neck, "k-kidding me."  
  
"Meow..." Yuri chuckled and nuzzled Flynn's neck, deliberately making the ears tickle under Flynn's chin.  
  
"I'm tired, Yuri," Flynn stressed, groaning when Yuri nipped lightly around his collar bones.  "Mmm... fine... but you're doing all the work."  
  
Yuri's lips descended on his in a slow, passionate kiss; Flynn was left panting by the time Yuri pulled away, a smug smile on his face. He purred in satisfaction, leaving Flynn with the distinct impression that Yuri had planned to do everything from the start.  
  
So Flynn relaxed, shivers of pleasure spiking through him whenever Yuri laved attention on the places where he was sensitive – the crook of his elbows, above and below and inside his belly-button, just to the side of his right hip, his left knee... the licking and kissing and nipping was driving him slowly, inexorably towards the edge. Certainly Yuri was enjoying drawing out every moan and groan and whimper Flynn had to offer, delighting the most in the places that made Flynn's hands clench the bedsheets and his body writhe as the heat built inside him, inching closer towards being unbearable.  
  
And when Yuri latched onto Flynn's boxers... Flynn didn't think it had ever taken so long to have his underwear peeled off before. But Yuri was slow and methodical, clearly enjoying how going inch by inch was driving Flynn crazy.  
  
All the while, the only sounds Yuri made were meows and purrs and possessive growls... such as the one he made as he finally – finally – turning his attention to Flynn's thick, reddened cock, standing needfully erect. In a distinctly cat-like manner, Yuri began lapping at the beads of pre-cum with his tongue.  
  
A slick finger circled Flynn's entrance and moaning wantonly, he spread his legs. Now Flynn wanted one thing more than sleep and that was for Yuri to hurry up and fuck him already. He opened his mouth to say so just as, with a mischievous expression, Yuri swallowed Flynn's erection whole and humming, or purring rather, in satisfaction when Flynn could only manage to shout Yuri's name in a combination of surprise and lust.  
  
The teasing finger slid inside, followed soon by a second and then a third, but Flynn was too lost in what Yuri's mouth was doing to him to notice... until those skillful fingers found their target, that is. Scissoring and rubbing inside him, Flynn's hands desperately moved from the sheets to tangle his fingers in his lover's long hair.  
  
So of course, that was when Yuri pulled his mouth away and slid his fingers back out.  
  
Whining in dissatisfaction, Flynn tightened his hold on Yuri's hair. But something much bigger than fingers was already poking slickly against his anus; Flynn groaned in relief as Yuri pushed inside of him. It wasn't long before Flynn saw fireworks going off behind his eyes and felt a sticky wetness on his stomach. Yuri followed him over the edge a little bit later, leaving a bite mark on Flynn's shoulder while he shuddered, still seated deep within Flynn.  
  
For a moment, Yuri lay atop of Flynn and then, lazily, Yuri got up on his hands and knees, hovering over Flynn as he slid out. Flynn whimpered in sleepy protest, letting Yuri slip out of his grasp. Pressing a kiss to the sleepy blond's forehead, Yuri tossed the cat ears aside and said, "tomorrow's Saturday, Flynn. You can sleep in all morning."  
  
Humming softly, Flynn smiled and let his eyes shut. As he drifted off to sleep, he felt Yuri slide out of the bed, presumably to find something to clean them up with.  
  
It'd be nice, to sleep in with Yuri... and maybe he could be Yuri's cat in the morning...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rita's never getting those cat ears back... assuming they are hers and Yuri didn't just buy his own this time.


	7. Nurse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – I'm pretty sure that, at this point, Tales of Vesperia owns me, not the other way around.
> 
> Outfit – Estelle's nurse outfit... *snicker*

It started with sniffles.  
  
Yuri assumed it was his allergies getting to him, so he knocked himself out that evening with some generic allergy medicine that also doubled as an equally generic sleeping aid. While Yuri usually hated taking anything that made his drowsy, his sniffles had already turned into a headache too. So some extra help going to sleep was suddenly a little more welcome.  
  
He woke up feeling cotton-headed and assumed it was an after-affect of the medicine. But his head still ached, as did the rest of his body, and his stomach felt a little queasy too. Though his first choice was to hole up in his room and sleep until he felt better, Judy and Karol dragged Yuri to the doctor's guild instead. Allergies were quickly ruled out as the culprit; Yuri had the flu.  
  
After being prescribed medicine with names Yuri couldn't hope to pronounce properly, he was finally allowed to go back to his room and pass out again. Yuri vaguely recalled someone bringing him soup for dinner – maybe crackers too; he was fuzzy on the details – but mostly he just slept. His fever kept him pretty out of it the next day, but afterwards, he was just achy and miserable, though definitely on the mend.  
  
Now, of course, Yuri was suffering from a different sort of fever: cabin fever. Usually, when Yuri was sick, Flynn would take care of him. Flynn would talk to him or make really horrible soup or absently run his fingers through Yuri's hair when he thought Yuri was sleeping...  
  
Yuri missed that. He missed having Flynn there to take his mind off of how crappy he felt. While he'd been missing Flynn for a while now, the loneliness that hit now made it hard to breathe. It was a sudden, desperate need to see Flynn, to wrap his arms around Flynn's shoulders and bury his face against the crook of Flynn's neck.  
  
That they were in different cities on different continents felt too painful to deal with.  
  
But the thing about being sick is that it makes concentrating an incredibly difficult task. So, despite Yuri's preoccupation with missing Flynn and wanting Flynn and feeling equally bad about being away from Flynn as he did from the flu, a sort of wonderfully random thought appeared in Yuri's head.  
  
The thought was of Flynn, of course. Flynn with a nurses hat on his head and a cute yellow and white nurse's outfit... black tights and the white shoes with the yellow trimming...  
  
Yuri shot up in bed, shaking his head to clear the thought away. Not that it worked. Now that the image was in his head, there was no getting rid of it.  
  
"What am I doing?" Yuri muttered softly. How could he be imagining his friend looking like that? Sure, it would be hilarious to see since Flynn would never, ever let himself look so undignified and... kind of cute, really.  
  
Sexy even.  
  
Yuri groaned and flopped back in the bed. His brain did not need to be doing this now. He was well aware that Flynn matched Yuri's type perfectly, but he'd never seriously considered trying to convince Flynn to date him before. Flynn was straight, after all, and Yuri wasn't good enough for him even if it turned out Flynn was actually bi.  
  
Still... it wouldn't hurt to fantasize a little, would it? After all, Flynn would never know.  
  
But instead of launching into a fantasy of Flynn slowly, sensually, stripping off the nurse's outfit, Yuri's mind wandered back to the time he'd been dating Guy. Flynn had seemed to dislike Guy a great deal, perhaps even bordering on hating the other blond.  
  
More specifically, Yuri's mind wandered back to a certain conversation the two of them had about Flynn's evident dislike of Guy. Though Flynn hadn't worn a nurse's outfit during that conversation, Yuri's mind supplied it now.  
  
 _"If there's something wrong with him, Flynn, just tell me. It's pretty obvious you can't stand Guy and I've never known you to dislike a person without a reason."_  
  
 _"There isn't anything wrong with him," Flynn admitted, looking away uncomfortably. "He seems nice enough and I haven't heard anything bad about him either. I just... don't like him. That's all. I'm sorry, Yuri... I don't want to cause problems between you and him."_  
  
 _"You're not. Though if you knew something bad about him, then I'd definitely break up with him. I like him a lot, but I trust you more." Yuri felt a little blindsided, and perhaps a bit guilty as well, at the sight of Flynn's bright smile and the feelings that stirred inside him. 'Don't go there, Yuri.'_  
  
 _"Maybe I just needed to hear you say that."_  
  
 _"He's not going to take your place, Flynn. You're my best friend and no one could be more important to me, okay?"_  
  
 _"Yeah..." Flynn frowned again. "You say that now, Yuri, but that just means you're not in love with anyone yet. When you do... well, not even I will be as important as that person. It's okay; that's how it's supposed to be, I guess... just be careful. I don't want you falling for someone I can't stand."_  
  
 _"Uh... sure."_  
  
It was even more difficult now, sick in bed with his mind conjuring up the image of Flynn looking adorable in a nurse's costume, to rationalize away that conversation. Had Flynn just been jealous at the thought of losing his best friend? Or had he been jealous at the thought of someone else being Yuri's lover?  
  
Yuri sighed again, this time managing to set aside his more difficult thoughts in favor of a mental image of Flynn stripping off the nurse's costume... to reveal his usual armor beneath. It really figured that imaginary Flynn was as stubborn and uncooperative as the real thing.  
  
He needed to talk to the real Flynn and figure this out. There hadn't been anyone since he'd broken up with Guy... only a few days after that conversation with Flynn. That was nearly a year-and-a-half ago at this point. Yuri was lonely and... even when he was with his friends or the times before, when he'd dated Guy or... he'd still be lonely. On some level, he always felt lonely.  
  
It only ever went away when Flynn was near.  
  
Yeah... it was time to admit how he felt to Flynn. He might not be good enough for Flynn, but that was something Flynn should get to decide for himself. If Flynn thought otherwise, then Yuri could be okay - more than okay, actually - with being wrong. If Flynn didn't feel the same way about Yuri... then maybe Yuri would finally be able to move on and stop looking for a 'replacement Flynn' in the men he was attracted to. Either way, this was something he really needed to confront for his own sake.  
  
Humming softly to himself, Yuri closed his eyes and slipped back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Generally illness-induced epiphanies are not necessarily the best things to embrace. But in this case, Yuri should definitely go for it. And then he should convince Flynn to wear the nurse's outfit. :)


	8. Firsts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – I own nothing; even the slash is practically writing itself...
> 
> Outfits – Yuri's normal outfit and Flynn's Captain/Commandant Uniform
> 
> I'm not sure this really goes with the rest of the stories here since its their normal clothes, but I didn't feel like making it a stand-alone.

Flynn hated to admit it, but the first time he saw Yuri back in his civilian clothes on the day Yuri left the Knights, it was all Flynn could do to keep from staring.  
  
Yuri looked good. All the extra exercise he'd been getting as a Knight had filled out Yuri's arms and legs. So while Flynn had seen Yuri wear the outfit a few times before, it had never clung to the raven-haired teen quite like this.  
  
Later, Flynn couldn't quite account for how he'd managed to say goodbye to Yuri without tripping over his words and making a complete idiot of himself.  
  
There was something else, though, besides the way the clothes looked on Yuri that had changed. A subtle sort of confidence was being exuded from him. Yuri knew he'd made the right choice for himself and it showed.  
  
In that moment, as Yuri walked away, Flynn knew he was in trouble again and it was all Yuri's fault. He just had to go and fall in love with that idiot best friend of his.

* * *

Yuri had always found Flynn attractive, but there was something about seeing Flynn in armor that always left Yuri feeling sort of hot and bothered. Particularly in that new uniform...  
  
If Flynn had invited Yuri to stay that night, the first time Yuri saw him wearing it, then Yuri would have followed him into the tent and jumped him. Only they were both so upset over the circumstances surrounding Ragou's pardon that Flynn didn't notice the way Yuri looked him over and Yuri figured, considering what he was planning to do to Ragou, he wasn't really good enough for Flynn anyway.  
  
But that didn't mean Yuri couldn't fantasize about Flynn in that gorgeous new armor and wishing... wishing he was good enough... wishing that Flynn loved him the way he loved Flynn...

* * *

This was a first, really.  
  
The two men lay out on the grass, laughing together tiredly. Usually, whenever Yuri seemed to beat Flynn the tables would turn at the last second and Flynn would emerge the victor. Though Yuri had figured he was well passed due a win against the blond, he hadn't expected to actually get one.  
  
"This is ridiculous," Flynn sighed softly.  
  
Giving his friend an odd look, Yuri asked, "what is?"  
  
"Us... the way we keep avoiding what's really going on between us."  
  
"I... I'm not really sure I get what you mean," Yuri admitted.  
  
Flynn rolled over so that he was straddling Yuri and then leaned over, pressing a kiss to Yuri's mouth.  
  
Groaning, Yuri surrendered to the kiss... and to Flynn as well.  
  
That guy... always had to turn things around for an unexpected win, didn't he?


	9. Anniversary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - Tales of Vesperia does not belong to me. I do not make monetary gains from the series, though I would lose money should the PS3 version ever be made available in the US.
> 
> outfit/object - Umm... just read the story. ;)

Flynn looked worn out, but still much better than the previous day when he'd been feverish. Alternating cold-sweats and hot-flashes from the flu had made Flynn act slightly delirious, but the doctor hadn't seemed too concerned since Flynn's fever hadn't reached particularly high before breaking. The illness ended up peaking as quickly as it had come on.  
  
Things might have been different a few years ago, when they wouldn't have been able to afford things like a doctor's visit or the medication used to treat Flynn's symptoms and speed his recovery. A few years ago, an illness like this might have even turned deadly.  
  
So if Yuri hovered a little too much, no one said anything. Maybe they'd seen in his eyes the ghosts of those previous years... like the time, when they were sixteen, that Flynn had a fever that had required an ice bath out in the snow to finally break. Or the year before that when Yuri had been the one to nearly died from pneumonia. Or all the times when someone they'd known had died from untreated illnesses.  
  
The lower quarter had free clinics available now, funded by a charity Estelle had made popular. So Yuri tried to worry less about when people around him got sick. Circumstances had changed for the better, after all.  
  
Somehow, the world really was becoming a better place.  
  
Still, Yuri would feel more at ease when Flynn looked healthier and his breathing wasn't so labored.  
  
"I'm hungry." When Yuri didn't respond, Flynn sat up, blinking at Yuri sleepily and drawing the raven-haired man out of his thoughts. "I'm hungry," the blond repeated, smiling a little. The day before, Flynn had no appetite, so this was a wonderful sign.  
  
Yuri smiled too. "I'll get you some soup." He leaned over and kissed Flynn on the cheek. Then, standing up, Yuri stretch, smirking at the way Flynn's eyes stared at the gap of skin that appeared between Yuri's sweat pants (which were slung a little lower than usual) and his tank top (which had shrunk a little recently after Karol had his turn at the guild's laundry and done the water too hot for the wash). "You're not well enough to be hungry for anything else," Yuri teased.  
  
Flynn blushed. "Doesn't mean I don't still want you anyway," he muttered. "I'm sorry I ruined today," he added.  
  
"The day's only begun, Flynn. Isn't it a little early to assume the whole thing is a waste?" Yuri reached over and ran his fingers through Flynn's short locks. The hair that was normally so soft – seemingly at odds with the spiky appearance – felt a little oily to the touch. Flynn would probably enjoy getting to take a shower today, Yuri thought idly.  
  
"It's our anniversary," Flynn responded quietly. "We had plans and I'm not well enough for them."  
  
"So we'll put it off until the weekend." Yuri dropped his hand to Flynn's shoulder and squeezed. "I'm just glad we're both actually here for our anniversary. Last year we were a whole month late because we were so busy."  
  
"It's always something," Flynn muttered, closing his eyes and leaning into Yuri's touch. "I'm still hungry," he added as his stomach rumbled.  
  
Laughing, Yuri left the room to fetch the promised soup.

* * *

After eating lunch and showering, Flynn felt immensely better. He even got dressed in a plain blue t-shirt that Yuri once told him matched his eyes and a pair of brown work-pants that he was fairly certain actually belonged to Yuri. The pants were just a little too tight and showed off his butt, which Yuri couldn't stop staring at whenever Flynn stood up.  
  
It certainly made Flynn feel better to know he looked good enough to, as Patty and Raven might put it, distract Yuri with his sexiness despite still feeling kind of crappy. In spite the general aching in his body and lingering headache, Flynn managed to be rather distracted himself. Yuri's 'lazy' outfit – his cleaning day outfit – shouldn't have been so alluring, but Yuri always managed to look seductive in just about anything he wore. Of course, Flynn was pretty certain he was biased about Yuri's ability to appear desirable at any given moment.  
  
The day actually wasn't too bad either. They spent most of it curled up together on the couch, idly talking about whatever they felt like. Flynn wished they could spend more days like that, just the two of them with no outside obligations to deal with.  
  
So when they finished dinner, Flynn made his decision. He excused himself to their room for a few minutes, retrieving a box from beneath his clothes in the dresser, and returned to Yuri.  
  
"Yuri... um... I had this whole thing planned out for today... and I don't want to put off this part." He held out the box, his hand shaking terribly.  
  
Shocked understanding appeared in Yuri's eyes and his hands were shaking too as he picked up the small jewelry box from Flynn's outstretched palm. The box nearly snapped shut on Yuri when he tried to open it, but then he was staring wide-eyed at the platinum and ebony bands within.  
  
"Flynn... are these... are these engagement rings?" Yuri sounded breathless and Flynn hoped it was happiness he saw reflected in Yuri's eyes.  
  
"Yes. Yuri... will you marry me?" Despite the kissing ban Yuri had instigated when Flynn got sick, which the raven-haired man had insisted would last until the next day, Yuri pressed his mouth against Flynn's and then slid his tongue into Flynn's mouth. Though brief, the kiss was passionate and forceful, leaving Flynn wanting more.  
  
"God, yes. I'll marry you," Yuri murmured against Flynn's lips.  
  
Pulling back a little, Flynn picked up the ring sized for Yuri and slid it onto his lover's – his fiance's – left ring finger. He couldn't help but think that Yuri had never looked more beautiful to him, dressed in a slacker outfit with Flynn's ring on his finger...  
  
"I love you."  
  
"Love you too," Yuri responded, eyes dark and face lit by a gorgeous smile as he slid the other ring onto Flynn's finger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On Tales of Xillia and it feels like Jude is somehow Yuri and Flynn's son, transported to another universe. Yuri's looks, Flynn's personality and voice-actor... surely I'm not the only person to have considered this?


	10. Themed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – I feel a bizarre sense of deja vu. It's as though I've disclaimed all of this before...
> 
> Outfits – School outfits

Nam Cobanda was getting to be one of Yuri's favorite places to visit.  
  
The hot springs were nice, but it was difficult to ignore Raven being an idiot at that place. (At least Judy had found Raven's behavior funny; things could have gotten so very awkward if she'd decided to take revenge on him.) There wasn't a whole lot to do besides sit in the hot springs, get a massage (which Yuri typically skipped, having never been a fan of strangers touching him), or hang out in the lobby.  
  
At the ongoing fair that was Nam Cobanda, however, there was always something entertaining to do. Poker was fun and Yuri was getting to be pretty good at the base game, so the dealers had taken to teaching him new variations. He particularly liked Texas Hold'em, though he wondered where the name came from. The slot machines were fun too, since you always won something. The occasional plays were usually fun to sit through; the thespian guild employed there were particularly adept at the dramas, with comedy being close behind. Horror, however, was definitely not their strong suit.  
  
The Cowz had started up a new tradition: weekly themes. Visitors didn't have to comply, but anyone staying at the Inn would find themselves provided with complementary outfits just in case they wanted to join in.  
  
Since this was the first week of themes, they'd decided to go with the theme that had inspired the look and feel of the buildings in the first place: high school.  
  
This was why Yuri found himself watching Flynn wearing a button down shirt and green plaid pants while curled up shoeless in a chair in their room at the Inn. It wasn't just the outfit – which looked very flattering on Flynn – or the lack of shoes – which made Yuri want to mess with Flynn's toes – that drew Yuri's attention, though.  
  
There was a pair of reading glasses perched upon Flynn's face.  
  
Licking his lips, Yuri decided that the slightly nerdy look suited Flynn very, very well. Also, Yuri was starting to get horny and if Flynn didn't put down that book and pay attention to Yuri soon, well...  
  
He was pretty certain Flynn wouldn't mind the consequences.

* * *

Just as Flynn was reaching the end of the chapter, Judith had barged into the room and dragged Yuri – whose protests had sounded quite genuine – from the room.  
  
It had been amusing to watch, but now Flynn wasn't really sure what to do. The book was good, but he wanted a break from reading. He wasn't as interested in card games or gambling as Yuri seemed to be, and the carnival games weren't really his thing either. At least, not when he was alone.  
  
Wandering the carnival with Yuri was fun. Sometimes one of them would notice something they wanted, or something they knew one of the others would want, and the two of them would take turns trying to win. In the end, they'd walk away with whatever it was, laughing and enjoying each other's company.  
  
But alone, Flynn just didn't really feel like joining the festivities.  
  
Setting aside his book, Flynn stood and stretched. Maybe he'd go find where Judith had dragged Yuri off too.  
  
The door opened and Yuri stumbled in, slamming the door behind him.  
  
Flynn's first thought went something like 'oh, good, I don't need to look for Yuri after all.' His second thought was 'where did that skirt come from?'  
  
In the twenty minutes Yuri had been gone, his pants had gone missing and a skirt had taken their place. A short, green, plaid skirt... maybe Judith's?  
  
"Uh... Yuri?"  
  
"She's insane!" Yuri declared, throwing a glare back at the door behind him.  
  
"You're... in a skirt."  
  
"Huh? Oh... yeah, I sort of lost a bet. Judy made me swap my pants for her skirt as the payment. I don't know why, though. She's always preferred less clothing to more before." Yuri shrugged and leaned against the door, crossing his ankles.  
  
Flynn licked his lips as his eyes ran up and down Yuri's long legs. He'd always liked Yuri's legs and been aware how long they were, but there was something different about seeing those legs showcased by a skirt instead of pants. A short skirt, to be precise.  
  
It was difficult, but Flynn managed to look up long enough to ask "you don't sound upset about that, so why are you angry?"  
  
"She wouldn't give me the matching tights to go with the skirt. Judy said that if I thought I needed them, then I should just shave my legs instead. Like that's going to happen." Yuri crossed his arms and pouted. Flynn didn't even want to understand what was going on in Yuri's brain anymore.  
  
Taking a few steps forward, Flynn asked, "would you lock the door?"  
  
"Uh, yeah, sure," Yuri flicked the lock and stood up straight again. "Planning something fun?" he asked teasingly.  
  
"Most definitely," Flynn agreed, moving to press Yuri up against the door.  
  
He was reaching under Yuri's skirt with one hand when, breathless, Yuri asked, "um... just... would you put your glasses back on?"


	11. Fascination

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Bamco owns, and profits from, Tales of Vesperia. I do not.
> 
> Teaser – It was the glasses, though, that brought an end to Yuri's oh-so-carefully maintained self-control. Six, almost seven, years of telling himself he could look and need and want and yearn... but never, never say a word... and it was reading glasses that caused everything to come crashing down.
> 
> Object of inspiration – Glasses on Flynn because Yuri thinks Flynn makes for a sexy librarian when he wears them

_Sixteen_  
  
Yuri wasn't anxious. He wasn't.  
  
He was just... curious.  
  
Flynn was on a date with a pretty girl named Amelia. She had red hair and green eyes and a cute smile. Her laugh was cute too.  
  
For weeks, Flynn had been tongue tied around Amelia - Yuri had never been so entertained - but the day before Flynn had, finally, managed to ask her out to dinner. Though he was happy for Flynn, there was a strange sort of heavy feeling in Yuri's chest.  
  
So Yuri waited up, his dinner only half-eaten as he wondered what Flynn and Amelia had to eat at the tavern or if Flynn told any of the jokes he liked that weren't really funny or if...  
  
It took all of Yuri's will power to pace around the room instead of hopping out the window and sneaking in to see for himself.  
  
"Yuri?" came a muffled voice at the door.  
  
Practically flinging himself at the handle, Yuri yanked the door open. "Flynn?"  
  
The blond looked upset. "Can I come in?"  
  
"Yeah, of course." Yuri stepped aside, letting Flynn in and then shutting the door behind him. "What happened?"  
  
"She was using me to make her boyfriend jealous." Flynn looked miserable.  
  
"What?" Yuri blinked, not sure what to say.  
  
"He showed up and told me what was going on. She... she didn't deny it. He broke it off and advised me to leave her alone... and she just started crying and begging him to come back and..." Flynn let out a choked laugh and collapsed onto the bed, his head buried in his hands. "I've never felt so humiliated."  
  
Sitting beside Flynn, Yuri wrapped his arms around his friend. "She was a moron and didn't deserve that guy, much less you. In all of Zaphias, there is no one better than you." He tightened his grip and lay his cheek against Flynn's shoulder.  
  
"Would it make you feel better if I went and punched her in the nose or something?"  
  
Utterly scandalized, Flynn's head jerked up. "Yuri! You can't hit a girl."  
  
"Sure I could. She hurt you. Besides, don't think of her as a girl. Think of her as a bitch."  
  
"Yuri..."  
  
"She hurt you, Flynn. No one gets away with that." Yuri felt rather ill about the whole thing, really. That someone would use his Flynn that way...  
  
His Flynn?  
  
"I'm sure she's suffering already."  
  
"Not nearly suffering enough," Yuri grumbled, but he subsided as Flynn finally scooted around to return Yuri's embrace.  
  
"Yuri...?"  
  
"Mmhmm?"  
  
"I don't suppose you'd make me cookies?"  
  
"Only if you promise not to help." Yuri laughed when Flynn smacked his shoulder, though he did promise to sit quietly and not offer any help with the baking.  
  
As the evening passed, though, Yuri couldn't quite get the question of just when he started thinking of Flynn as his out of his mind.  
  
 _Seventeen_  
  
After the disaster with Amelia, Yuri thought it would take a while before Flynn tried again. Yet, somehow, three months had seemed far too soon.  
  
Still, Marie was a nice girl. She wasn't as... buxom as Amelia, but she had a kind, shy smile that even Yuri had to admit was kind of attractive. Marie was dark-haired with gray eyes and pale skin. Sometimes, when Flynn would convince Yuri to go on a double date with them – always with some girl that Marie was friends with, but never captivating enough for Yuri to find interesting – people would comment on how Marie looked like Yuri's long, lost sister.  
  
It was a little weird. Even Flynn had to admit to the resemblance.  
  
Their personalities were opposites, at least. Marie was quiet and more dependent than Yuri would ever feel comfortable with. She seemed incapable of the sort of recklessness that defined Yuri. Of course, she thought that Yuri just needed the right girl to tame him and he'd settle right down. As if there was something wrong with him that only having a girlfriend could fix.  
  
Marie was certainly trying to find that girl who'd fix him, too. She'd been with Flynn for four months and, during the last two, there had been far more double dates than Yuri was really comfortable with. Lately he'd found himself trying desperately to keep his attention off Flynn and on whatever poor girl he was supposed to be talking with. They were all pretty, attractive girls too. Some of them had more fluff than brains, but the ones who were smart and witty deserved a better date than Yuri felt he could be.  
  
He was starting to realize, however, that while he found girls attractive, he just wasn't attracted to them. The only question was how to tell Flynn.  
  
"Marie was telling me about her friend, Annika..."  
  
"Flynn, I... I don't think this is a good idea," Yuri interrupted. "I don't... I'm not..." he trailed off uncertainly, the words sticking in his throat.  
  
"Yuri? What's wrong?"  
  
"I don't think I'm really interested in women," he hedged, wondering how Flynn would react.  
  
"Oh." Flynn tilted his head to the side, frowning thoughtfully. "Are you saying you're gay?"  
  
"Maybe... I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that out. I do know that I'm not interested in dating the girls Marie keeps trying to set me up with. She... has even less idea what my type is than I do and these double dates are making me miserable." Yuri hesitated. "If I am gay... would that be a problem for you?"  
  
"What? No." Flynn shook his head and reached out to grab Yuri's hands with his own. "You're my best friend. That will never change. I'm just a little surprised. I... should have seen for myself you weren't enjoying Marie's attempts at match-making. I guess I've been a little self-absorbed lately."  
  
"You're happy, dating her." The words felt heavy to Yuri and not the slightest bit fair. "You just wanted me to be happy too. That's not really selfishness, Flynn."  
  
"It is if I can't see how my actions are making things more difficult for you." Flynn squeezed Yuri's hands lightly before letting them drop.  
  
Blushing, Yuri tried to tell himself that he wasn't falling for his best friend...  
  
 _Eighteen_  
  
The only conclusion Yuri could come to was that he was screwed.  
  
He kept staring at Flynn in a very... not-platonic manner. He did his best not to, but it was so difficult.  
  
Flynn's eyes were a gorgeous shade of blue, but there were flecks of gray in there that Yuri had only recently started noticing. Then there was Flynn's hair, which was decidedly softer since he'd switched shampoos (he smelled differently too). Not to forget the way his pants showed off his ass...  
  
Keeping Flynn's girlfriend from noticing was more of a chore than keeping the blond himself oblivious, though.  
  
"Uh, Flynn? You look dazed. Everything okay?" Yuri tried not to be diverted by the way Flynn's shirt showed off the muscles in his arms.  
  
"I broke up with Marie."  
  
Inwardly, Yuri cheered though he remained outwardly neutral. "What happened?"  
  
"We... we were fighting again, about my plans to join the Knights next week." Flynn sighed. "I broke it off with her. If she can't accept that this is what I want to do with my life, then... we don't really make a good couple, do we?"  
  
"Not really," Yuri agreed, growing contemplative. "Your Dad," he added quietly, "was a pretty amazing person and the best Knight I've ever known. I... haven't liked the way she's been trying to keep you from following in his footsteps."  
  
"I guess this is for the best..."  
  
Yuri nodded and tried not to smile too brightly at the thought that he wouldn't have to see Flynn kissing her anymore.

* * *

Flynn was an ass.  
  
Curled up beside Repede, blanket wrapped around them both, Yuri sniffled as much from the cold as from his bruised feelings. Flynn had apologized – as had he – but that didn't negate the fact that Flynn was an ass.  
  
When had he stopped being proud of his father, anyway? He'd become such a bore, too. Convincing Flynn to hang out was far more painful an experience than it should have been.  
  
Yuri sighed and tried to snuggle in closer to the puppy's warmth. There was no use dwelling on how Flynn had changed. Yuri was different now too, after all.  
  
Basic training hadn't been kind to either of them, it seemed. It left them feeling like strangers during the ride to join Niren's brigade and it hadn't really abated over the past month.  
  
Sniffling again, Yuri thought longingly of the room he shared with Flynn. Blastia heated the building on nights like this one. There was one notable problem with his half-formed plan of grabbing Repede and heading inside. Flynn was such a stickler for the rules, he'd probably get pissed at Yuri for bringing the dog into the barracks... which would lead to yet another argument between them.  
  
He sneezed.  
  
"Oh screw it," Yuri grumbled. Standing up, he wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and then picked up Repede. Though the night before had been temperate enough, autumn's chill was certainly making itself felt now.  
  
"Yuri?" Flynn peeked into the stable, growing visibly relieved at the sight of Yuri. "Are you bringing Repede to our room?" He held open the door, sounding almost hopeful.  
  
"Um... yes, actually..."  
  
"Good. It's too cold out here for you two tonight." Flynn sighed at the sight of what must have been a stunned expression on Yuri's face. "I'm not really that bad, am I?"  
  
"Not usually, but lately..." Yuri shrugged and followed Flynn out of the barn and up to their room. Once inside, he place Repede on his bed and immediately shucked off his boots. "Are you okay? You have this... weird look on your face."  
  
"I'm... not really sure," Flynn admitted, taking a seat beside Yuri and absently reaching over to pet Repede. "I've... been kind of an ass lately, haven't I?"  
  
It was like he had read Yuri's mind. Hopefully he hadn't heard all of Yuri's thoughts. "Well... do you really want me to answer that?"  
  
"Probably not. I just... during our training in Zaphias, my squad was under Lieutenant Cumore. He kept... he was..." Flynn paused uncertainly. "He told me he knew my father and... that he was a failure. A fool who died needlessly, disobeying orders."  
  
"So he's the one who got you all mixed up about your father's death. You said earlier that when someone dies, that's it... there's nothing left." Yuri shook his head. "But that's not true at all. Your father was one of the bravest men I've ever known. He valued the lives of the people in the lower quarter more than following orders and... he valued your life more than his own.  
  
"You're what he left behind, Flynn. You're his legacy. You could achieve so much but... you can't let people like Cumore hold you back. Imagine, Flynn, if your dad had followed orders. You and I and so many others would have probably died because he wouldn't have stopped the blastia from exploding inside the city. Half the lower quarter... gone. He... he couldn't have lived with that, Flynn. But that is the sort of life we have to live up to."  
  
"Is that why you agree with Captain Niren's decision?"  
  
"Yes." Yuri paused and then decided he might as well make a few confessions of his own. "My instructor was Lieutenant Everett. He... had a tendency to border on sexual harassment towards the lady knights when he was sober. When he was drunk, though, he'd show up in the men's barracks and feel us up. No one would do anything about it... so we took to keeping knives in reach. He was... easily deterred and didn't normally remember how he got cut up the next day.  
  
"If we hadn't been assigned to a Captain like Niren, I'd have probably quit by now."  
  
Flynn's shocked expression said it all. Reaching out, he grabbed Yuri's hand and squeezed tightly. "Did he ever...?"  
  
"No, no... he never made it under my shirt, much less into my pants," Yuri assured Flynn. "Not for lack of trying, but he wasn't a particularly coordinated drunk... fortunately.  
  
"Anyway, my point is that we've both had our reasons for being kind of screwed up lately. We've been living in the same room for a month, but I've missed you this whole time."  
  
"I know what you mean," Flynn murmured, leaning his forehead against Yuri's shoulder. "I promise... that I'll do my best to keep personal problems from hurting our friendship and that I won't let other people dictate how I view my father's death. I'm not sure I'll ever really be comfortable with the choices he made, but you're right in that I should respect his decision. Father always did his best to do the right thing and that's what he was trying to do in the end.  
  
"I just... miss him so much. I've wanted so badly to blame someone for his death in that accident... and everything Cumore and the other officers would say made it so easy to... to blame him. But it's left me feeling so twisted up inside; I hate feeling this way."  
  
Putting his arms around Flynn's shoulders, Yuri tried to ignore the way his heart ached. "We should get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be one hell of a day."  
  
 _Twenty-Two_  
  
So Yuri left the Knights, taking Repede and Niren's blastia with him, while Flynn stayed. They were on better terms with each other, but things were still a little awkward. The only thing that Yuri was certain of was that his crush on Flynn was no longer a crush.  
  
For all that Flynn was flawed and irritating and sometimes a thoughtless jerk... Yuri loved him.  
  
Three years passed and Yuri's feelings didn't change, leading to a few doomed relationships that simply couldn't cure him of his unrequited love for his oblivious friend. Though his longest relationship – nearly a year – had been with a young man who could have been Flynn's long-lost twin: Guy Cecil. They'd been more like friends-with-benefits, both rather honest with each other about being in love with someone else, but they'd genuinely liked one another. If not for Flynn, and Luke, perhaps they could have had something more together.  
  
Eventually Yuri found himself alone again, chaffing at the feeling of being trapped in the lower quarter, but unable to come up with a solution to the problem that wouldn't involve leaving. He didn't want to leave the lower quarter. He was comfortable there... content. Repede seemed happy enough.  
  
Besides, leaving would mean seeing less of Flynn. Flynn barely had time for Yuri as it was; the idea of being cut even further out of the blond's life terrified Yuri.  
  
In the end fate, and a pink haired princess, intervened and Yuri left Zaphias behind anyway. He became a murderer and the founder of a guild. He gained a sister and stopped a tyrant. He saved the world. It was all oddly freeing.  
  
Through all of that, Yuri watched as Flynn overcame his personal failings in addition to the seemingly impossible obstacles that threatened to block his unprecedented and meteoric rise to the position of Commandant. Yuri fell even more in love with the blond idiot. However, Yuri was no longer desperate to remain a part of Flynn's life. He became desperate to remove himself from Flynn's life.  
  
For a low born man in the position of Commandant, Flynn needed to keep the reasons the Council had for disliking him to a minimum. Consorting with a murderer, regardless of an official Imperial pardon from Emperor Ioder, would look bad for Flynn in the eyes of the Council.  
  
Flynn, however, was... less than pleased by the concept of Yuri being more than an hour away from him at all times. He took to spending his evenings – on the occasions where he didn't end up working into the early hours of the morning – and the few off hours he allowed himself in Yuri's room at the Inn. Sometimes Yuri would come back from missions late at night to find Flynn curled up, asleep in his bed.  
  
On those nights, Yuri would wake Flynn just enough to make the other scoot over. Yuri couldn't quite resist the chance to fall asleep with Flynn's warmth pressed against his side or the opportunity to wake up to find that Flynn's arms had wrapped around him as they slept.  
  
It was the glasses, though, that brought an end to Yuri's oh-so-carefully maintained self-control. Six, almost seven, years of telling himself he could look and need and want and yearn... but never, never say a word... and it was reading glasses that caused everything to come crashing down.  
  
At least it wasn't cat-ears. That would have been embarrassing for them both.

* * *

Yuri walked into his room and unbelted his vest, dropping both the vest and the belt on the desk chair before turning to his bed and freezing at the sight.  
  
It wasn't unusual for Flynn to be asleep in his bed when Yuri came back late from a mission. Yuri still wasn't quite sure what to make of Flynn's sudden obsession with being the first person to see Yuri when he got back to Zaphias, but he wasn't about to say anything that might make Flynn stop. It was nice to be welcomed home by his best friend.  
  
It was nice to have his best friend in his bed, even if all they did in it was sleep.  
  
(Of course, Raven and Judy assumed that other things were going on. Estelle, however, believed him when he said nothing happened, but she seemed to be of the opinion that nothing was happening because Yuri and Flynn were both oblivious idiots. Rita rather vocally agreed with Estelle's opinion. Karol kept his thoughts on the subject to himself, which had made him Yuri's favorite member of the guild.)  
  
What made Yuri freeze in place at the sight of Flynn was the way he looked at that moment. Dressed in pajamas (blue to match his eyes) and a book in his hands, this was almost a scene Yuri had witnessed at least a dozen times over. Even the fact that Flynn had fallen asleep, book nearly slipping from his grasp, was familiar. The reading glasses, however, were new.  
  
Yuri felt a hot burst of want flood through him, overcoming his exhaustion, at the sight of Flynn wearing those glasses. He threw out a hand and steadied himself, then closed his eyes in a futile attempt to block out the sight.  
  
There were always times when Flynn would look so good that Yuri had to restrain himself from walking over and kissing the blond. The last thing he wanted to do was wreck their relationship. But this time...  
  
This time, Flynn might not even notice...  
  
Opening his dark eyes again, Yuri crept over to the sleeping blond and eased the book from his hands. Marking Flynn's place, Yuri set it aside on the floor, beneath the bed so it wouldn't get stepped on. Then Yuri waited a moment, to see if Flynn would stir from the disturbance. But Flynn just sighed softly and tilted his head a little to the left against the wall.  
  
So certain that this was the only chance he'd get for this, Yuri leaned over and pressed a chaste kiss against Flynn's lips. He drew back, his heart pounding and his body warm from the feeling of Flynn's chapped lips against his own.  
  
Yuri wanted more and he forced himself to move away instead. Bad enough to have stolen one kiss from his best friend. Yuri didn't dare steal another.  
  
Flynn stirred from his sleep at that moment. Blinking sleepily, he looked brought a hand up to his lips, a look of confusion on his face. Yuri tried not to panic; did Flynn feel that kiss in his sleep?  
  
Looking up, Flynn saw Yuri standing there and his eyes widened slightly, a blush turning his cheeks red. "Um, Yuri... did you...? I mean... that is..."  
  
"Did you have a weird dream?" Yuri asked, his voice giving away far too much for his own comfort, but maybe Flynn wouldn't notice. Flynn seemed like he was still half-asleep, after all.  
  
But then he blinked again and the blue eyes behind those reading glasses grew clearer. Flynn pushed the covers aside and stood up, stretching deliberately.  
  
Yuri tried to control his gaze, but couldn't. He wanted Flynn so much... and Flynn had to see that, even with the reading glasses making him slightly near-sighted.  
  
Flynn walked over to Yuri and slid his arms around the raven-haired man's shoulders. "It isn't very nice to steal a kiss when I can't enjoy it properly," he informed Yuri. Then Flynn leaned in to steal a kiss of his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is Flynn's side to all of this. :)


	12. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – I don't own the Tales of Vesperia characters, but I do own a dog named Estelle. I'm pretty sure that doesn't count as owning a princess, though. She's a scruffy min-pin/wire-haired terrier mix who is a friend to all... except for squirrels and possums, but they're evil rodents and should stay out of her yard anyway.
> 
> This is a follow-up to the previous chapter. It's much longer because Flynn decided to be complicated.

_Eighteen_  
  
Flynn felt like such a jerk.  
  
He'd seen on Yuri's face that something was wrong but, so wrapped up in his own anger and disappointments, Flynn had picked a fight with him anyway. Then, to find out what happened to the dogs... what Yuri had to do to protect the others...  
  
Sitting alone in their room, Flynn huffed and dropped his face in his hands.  
  
Yuri was always there for him when he needed support. So why was it that he always seemed to fail when Yuri needed him in return?  
  
"Dammit..." Standing up, Flynn left the room and made his way down to the barn where Yuri and Repede were. It felt freezing outside; autumn was finally making itself known tonight and Yuri shouldn't be sleeping out there the night before a battle.  
  
Flynn opened the stable door to the sound of a sneeze and Yuri's grumbling. "Yuri?" He let out a little sigh of relief at the sight of Yuri wrapped in a blanket, holding Repede. It looked like he'd been about to head to the door himself. "Are you bringing Repede to our room?" He held the door open hopefully.  
  
"Um... yes, actually..." Yuri trailed off uncertainly. He had the stubborn, mulish look he always got when he was prepared for a fight.  
  
Guilt stabbed Flynn's chest and he withheld a wince. "Good. It's too cold out here for you two tonight." Yuri's expression turned stunned and this time Flynn did wince. "I'm not really that bad, am I?"  
  
"Not usually, but lately..." Yuri shrugged and offered Flynn a smile as he followed Flynn out of the barn. They walked back to their room in silence; all the while, Flynn's mind gnawed away at the guilt he felt at being such a crappy friend lately.  
  
He'd been unnecessarily harsh on Yuri during their attack on the monsters a week earlier. Yes, Yuri had deviated from the plan, but going faster than scheduled had probably saved Yuri and Hisca's life when the monsters started chasing them. Certainly Flynn and Chastel had started running ahead too when they gained unwanted company. He'd been so frustrated with how things had turned out on that mission that he'd turned around and taken it out on Yuri.  
  
It was a wonder that Yuri had still wanted Flynn to join him and the twins at the pub for dinner the next evening. Even then, he'd been such an ass, refusing to sit with Yuri and then only joining in the fight when a guildsman punched him. What kind of friend acted that way?  
  
A really crappy one, obviously.  
  
Once they got inside the room, Yuri dropped Repede onto the bed, sat down beside the puppy, and started kicking off his boots. He kept glancing worriedly at Flynn all the while, finally asking, "are you okay? You have this... weird look on your face."  
  
"I'm... not really sure," Flynn admitted, sitting down beside his friend. He reached out and started petting Repede. Really, he'd prefer to run his fingers through Yuri's hair; touching Yuri's soft, silky hair was always calming for him.  
  
In fact, even when he'd dated Marie, he'd found petting Yuri's hair much more soothing than petting hers. Not that he'd ever mentioned that to either of them. He'd just chalked up the difference to the fact that Yuri had been in his life forever; the familiarity made him more comfortable, or something.  
  
"I've... been kind of an ass lately, haven't I?" Flynn asked quietly.  
  
"Well..." Yuri hedged for a moment. "Do you really want me to answer that?"  
  
"Probably not." Flynn took a deep breath and then found himself pouring out the problems he'd faced in training. Lieutenant Cumore's words still stung and the way he'd told the story of Finath Scifo's death had made it sound so plausible that everything Finath had done was for nothing. As though if he'd just followed orders then even he wouldn't have died that day.  
  
"So he's the one who got you all mixed up about your father's death. You said earlier that when someone dies, that's it... there's nothing left." Yuri shook his head, his expression the most serious Flynn had ever seen him wear. "But that's not true at all. Your father was one of the bravest men I've ever known. He valued the lives of the people in the lower quarter more than following orders and... he valued your life more than his own.  
  
"You're what he left behind, Flynn. You're his legacy. You could achieve so much, but... you can't let people like Cumore hold you back. Imagine, Flynn, if your dad had followed orders. You and I and so many others would have probably died because he wouldn't have stopped the blastia from exploding inside the city. Half of the lower quarter... gone. He-he couldn't have lived with that, Flynn. But that is the sort of life we have to live up to."  
  
Flynn looked away, blinking hard. He'd gotten so used to hearing knights speak badly about his father that hearing Yuri's words were like a balm, easing away the pain. And the way Yuri spoke of him being his father's legacy... he'd never realized that Yuri saw him that way. The last of the chill from outside was chased away by the warmth of Yuri's friendship.  
  
"Is that why you agree with Captain Niren's decision?" Flynn asked, already knowing the answer. Yuri's little speech had made Flynn better understand and accept the Captain's decision as well.  
  
"Yes," Yuri answered, as expected. What wasn't expected, however, were Yuri's next words. "My instructor was Lieutenant Everett. He," Yuri swallowed nervously, giving a little shudder he was likely unaware of, "had a tendency to border on sexual harassment towards the lady knights when he was sober. When he was drunk, though, he'd show up in the men's barracks and feel us up. No one would do anything about it... so we took to keeping knives in reach. He was... easily deterred and didn't normally remember how he got cut up the next day."  
  
Flynn realized he was shaking as rage welled up in his chest. There had never really been anyone Flynn could claim to truly hate, but... if Lieutenant Everett were to show up in Shizontania, then Flynn just knew he'd find himself in a deep well of trouble for assaulting a superior officer.  
  
It would be worth it, though.  
  
"If we hadn't been assigned to a Captain like Niren, I'd have probably quit by now."  
  
Grabbing onto Yuri's hand, Flynn squeezed tightly. "Did he ever...?" Fear and worry choked off the rest of the question before Flynn could finish speaking.  
  
"No, no." Yuri squeezed his hand against Flynn's reassuringly. "He never made it under my shirt, much less into my pants. Not for lack of trying, but he wasn't a particularly coordinated drunk... fortunately."  
  
Yuri let out a shaky, cleansing breath. "Anyway, my point is that we've both had our reasons for being kind of screwed up lately. We've been living in the same room for a month, but I've missed you this whole time."  
  
"I know what you mean," Flynn muttered. He leaned his forehead against Yuri's shoulder. It was a familiar, comforting action; it brought to mind all the other times he'd been upset about something and how he could always – quite literally – lean on Yuri for strength and support.  
  
For the first time since joining the Knights, Flynn felt like he was home.  
  
"I promise," Flynn vowed, "that I'll do my best to keep personal problems from hurting our friendship and that I won't let other people dictate how I view my father's death. I'm not sure I'll ever really be comfortable with the choices he made, but you're right in that I should respect his decision. Father always did his best to do the right thing and that's what he was trying to do in the end.  
  
"I just miss him so much. I've wanted so badly to blame someone for his death in that accident... and everything Cumore and the other officers would say made it so easy to... to blame him. But it's left me feeling so twisted up inside; I hate feeling this way." He'd meant to add 'I hate taking it out on you' but the words got stuck.  
  
As Yuri wrapped his arms around Flynn's shoulders, Flynn tried to ignore the way his heart ached.  
  
"We should get some sleep," Yuri murmured. "Tomorrow is going to be one hell of a day."  
  
Flynn nodded and ended up staying in that bed, curled up with Yuri and Repede. As he fell asleep, Flynn promised himself he'd be a better friend to Yuri. He'd find a way to help Yuri be happy again.  
  
 _Nineteen_  
  
"So..." Yuri shifted uncomfortably. "I'm seeing someone."  
  
"As in dating someone?" Flynn clarified, surprised. It had been two years since Yuri had sort of come out as gay and he'd never commented on being attracted to anyone since then, so Flynn had pushed the incident out of mind. In fact, he had kind of slotted Yuri away as asexual given his seeming lack of interest in dating at all.  
  
So it was a little jarring to realize that, apparently, Yuri was attracted to someone after all.  
  
"Yeah. Well... we've gone out for drinks a few times and... he kissed me the other night. So, yeah, I guess you could say we're dating." Yuri paused and looked down at Repede, running his fingers through the dog's silky fur. "He seems like a nice guy. Hanks doesn't disapprove of him, anyway."  
  
"That's good." Flynn felt oddly hesitant as he asked, "what's his name?"  
  
"Jason Travers." Yuri smiled faintly, a fond light in his eyes. Then he frowned again, adding, "he works one of the Fortunes Market kiosks in the public quarter."  
  
"So he's a guildsman?" Flynn wasn't too sure he liked the sound of this. There was nothing wrong with being a guildsman, but Flynn was holding out hope he could get Yuri back into the Knights one day. Having a guildsman boyfriend would only make Yuri even less interested in signing back up.  
  
"Yeah, not that it really means much in his case. He just minds the store; he's not really interested in guilds vs the Empire or politics or whatever," Yuri waved his hand dismissively. "He's fun. I think you'll approve, too, once you meet him."  
  
"I'm sure you're right," Flynn agreed, hoping the expression on his face was closer to a smile than a grimace. How had he managed to be so unprepared for Yuri to start dating when, just a couple of years earlier, he'd been the one convincing Yuri to double date with him?

* * *

Travers was a nice, fun guy. He was about Yuri and Flynn's height, ash-blond hair, and had a sort of lilting voice. Flynn couldn't quite place the accent – Capua Torim maybe?  
  
Flynn had no real reason to disapprove of him either. Travers didn't care that Flynn was a Knight; he was pleasant to Flynn all evening and seemed pretty interested in hearing stories about Yuri. He told some funny jokes and made Yuri laugh a lot.  
  
Something about him, though, left Flynn feeling like his stomach had twisted up in knots. Flynn didn't like how familiar Travers acted with Yuri, such as the way he kept touching Yuri's hands and shoulders and hair. Flynn didn't like the way Travers smiled at Yuri, with a sort of proprietary look in his eyes. Flynn didn't like the idea of Travers kissing Yuri, either.  
  
The very idea made Flynn feel vaguely ill.  
  
It wasn't that he had problems with two men kissing. Having basically grown up in a lower quarter inn he'd seen plenty of kissing as all kinds of couples – some who were probably being paid for by the hour – fumbled their way into their rooms and none of that had ever bothered him one way or the other; as long as everyone involved was a consenting adult, Flynn didn't consider who kissed, or slept with, whom to be his business. It was specifically Travers and Yuri kissing that made him uneasy.  
  
So, much as he wanted to, for Yuri's sake, Flynn just didn't like Travers.  
  
Still, Yuri seemed happy enough and Flynn was loathe to get in the way of Yuri being happy. Flynn managed to make it through his few encounters with Travers without breaking down and complaining about disliking Yuri's boyfriend for mostly nebulous and indefinable reasons.  
  
A little over a month later, however, Flynn walked into his room only to find the window open and Yuri curled up on top of the covers of his bed, fast asleep. This wasn't an uncommon occurrence, but it was something Yuri hadn't done for a while.  
  
Flynn hadn't realized how much he'd missed receiving random visits from Yuri until that moment. Smiling fondly, Flynn crossed the room and shut the window, then settled on the edge of the bed beside his friend. Idly, Flynn reached out and began petting Yuri's hair.  
  
"Hmmm..." Yuri blinked and woke up, confusion running briefly across his features before he sat up. "Uh, hi."  
  
Brushing a few stray hairs out of Yuri's eyes as an excuse to let his fingers linger for a few moments longer, Flynn grinned. "Hi," he replied. "It's been a while since you last sneaked in here."  
  
"I guess I've sort of been busy lately." Yuri picked at the edge of the duvet. "You never really liked Jason, did you?"  
  
Flynn opened his mouth to give an evasive answer only to freeze at the sight of the expression on Yuri's face. What Yuri wanted – needed – at that moment was honesty. So Flynn finally admitted the truth. "No. He didn't do anything bad or say anything wrong. I just don't like him."  
  
"I never liked Marie all that much, either."  
  
It had been at least a year since Flynn had broken up with her and he couldn't really remember the last time he'd even thought of her. Flynn wasn't really sure what she had to do with this conversation, unless...  
  
"Did you and Travers break up?" Flynn asked gently.  
  
Yuri nodded jerkily. "He... wanted to move faster than I'm ready for and when he tried to push me into it, I broke things off."  
  
"Was he trying to push you into... having sex with him?" Flynn asked uncertainly, rage building up in his chest over Travers even as his own face turned pink out of embarrassment about asking Yuri about his sex life.  
  
"Do you really want me to talk about another guy feeling me up?" Yuri asked, sounding more amused than the situation warranted. He fingered the collar of his shirt for a moment and Flynn realized that Yuri actually had it buttoned all the way up for a change. "He got a little enthusiastic and I can't say it didn't feel good, but he wouldn't stop when I asked him to back off. As if just because my body likes something means my mind gets no say." Yuri crossed his arms and huffed, his own face bright red as he muttered, "it wasn't mixed signals. He just wasn't listening."  
  
Taking a deep breath, he added, "anyway, I broke his nose and told him my next target would be much lower if he didn't let me up and then left with my things while he called me names I couldn't understand since his voice had gone all nasally."  
  
"I should have told you I didn't like him..." Flynn started to say, thinking of all the ways he could have helped Yuri avoid having gone through all of that, only for Yuri to interrupt him.  
  
"I'd have probably dated him anyway. After all, I could tell you didn't like him much, even though you never said anything, and I still dated him. It was my mistake to make, Flynn. Things didn't get too out of hand and I'm fine. Chalk it up to learning or whatever. Also, do you have any apple gels? He left a hickey on my neck I'd like to get rid of and I... uh... came straight here instead of going home first."  
  
Flynn felt his face heat in further embarrassment as he immediately hopped up to fetch a gel from the dresser for Yuri to use. "Is there anything else I can do?" he asked, handing over the gel.  
  
"Well..." Yuri passed the gel back and forth in his hands as he mentally debated something. "Can I stay here tonight? I know I'm not alone at home with Repede there, but... you're a lot better at helping me feel better after a bad day."  
  
"Of course you can stay," Flynn replied, a little relieved that Yuri wouldn't be going anywhere that night where Travers could reach. It was the least he could do, giving Yuri a safe place for the night. And if Flynn ever saw, or even just heard about, Travers near Yuri again, Flynn would break the little bastard in half.  
  
But Yuri was smiling again and undoing the extra buttons on his shirt so that he could rub in the healing gel on the unwanted bite mark. Yuri would sleep, safe and sound, in Flynn's bed that night and Flynn would be able to see for himself that Yuri was really okay in the morning.  
  
By then, it would be like the mark was never there.  
  
 _Twenty_  
  
It had to happen eventually, Flynn supposed, looking across the table at the blond man sitting there. At some point, Yuri had to find a boyfriend that Flynn could approve of. Guy Cecil was a laid back sort of person. He wasn't possessive or clingy; he was funny. Even Flynn couldn't help but find his sharp wit entertaining.  
  
Still, after the last three guys Yuri had dated turned out to be... flakey, Flynn was having a difficult time accepting Yuri's latest boyfriend. Flynn wanted to approve this one, but...  
  
Maybe he just worried too much.  
  
Guy, however, did something none of the others had tried. He asked Flynn to meet him for lunch without Yuri being there.  
  
So, there they sat, wrapped in an awkward silence, at a cafe in the public quarter.  
  
"Yuri is a very special person," Guy finally said, breaking the silence.  
  
"He really is," Flynn agreed.  
  
"I care for him a great deal and I hope he feels the same way about me. But you're the most important person in his life; if you don't like me then I don't stand a chance with him. So anything you want to know, I'm an open book." Guy waved his hands. "Ask away."  
  
"What are your intentions for Yuri?" Flynn had other questions, but this was the most important one.  
  
"I want to make him happy. As I said, I really care for him. I like his smile and his laughter and I want to be the cause of as many of those smiles and as much of that laughter as possible. I can't make promises about the future or falling in love or anything else, but I can promise, right now, that I want nothing more than to make Yuri happy."  
  
Flynn let out a little sigh of relief and resignation. It had to happen eventually, after all.

* * *

"I guess I'm just confused. I thought you two really liked each other." Flynn crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.  
  
"We do, but we're not in love with each other. We were content together, but I honestly think that Guy could have a chance at something more than just content... something better. So, I'm giving him a gentle shove in that direction. We're still going to be friends, but no more than that... which probably won't change a whole lot between us, aside from not sleeping together anymore," Yuri observed, smirking when Flynn blushed.  
  
"If you're really expecting him to start dating Luke, you probably won't get to see as much of him anymore either," Flynn pointed out. "He'll spend more time with his new boyfriend. I still can't believe you're breaking up with him so you can set him up with someone else."  
  
"I want him to be happy, that's all," Yuri shrugged. "Being content is a kind of being happy, but its... like settling for second best. Some people have to settle and others don't."  
  
"You deserve better than second best too, you know," Flynn said, frowning at the wistful expression that flitted across Yuri's face.  
  
"Yeah, well, I'm going to stay away from dating for a while. You, however, should consider getting back in the game." Yuri leaned forward with a smirk. "Our birthdays are coming up, meaning that it's nearly been three years since you broke up with Marie. And, unless I miss my guess, three years since you last got laid."  
  
Flynn felt his cheeks heat up again and he scowled at his friend. "You really like turning my face red, don't you."  
  
Yuri laughed and reached over for moment to cheerfully ruffle Flynn's hair. "It's fun," he agreed. "You could pass for a tomato when you get red enough."  
  
"Yuri..." Flynn tried to stay stern, but he ended up smiling instead. "You're impossible."  
  
Backing off, Yuri took a seat on his bed. "Seriously, though, isn't there someone you're interested in at all? Isn't there a cute new girl in your brigade?"  
  
"Cute new girl?" Flynn echoed, thinking for a moment. "Oh... Sodia. I guess she's cute. She's... very dedicated."  
  
"Sounds kinky," Yuri declared, smirking as Flynn basically blushed on cue.  
  
"You're an ass," Flynn complained. "She's a very dedicated Knight and definitely someone I'd want at my back in a fight. However..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm not sure she has a life outside of the Knights," he admitted. "I might not be the most social of people, but I've got you, Repede, Hanks, Ted and the others to spend time with when I'm off duty. She doesn't do anything with her free time; she won't even come along for drinks with the rest of us."  
  
"So, basically, she's stodgy enough that even you're worried she'll snap?" Yuri asked, snickering when Flynn's response was to childishly stick out his tongue. "Okay, so not the crazy new girl. Isn't there someone you're interested in, even a little?"  
  
The only other girl in his life at the moment was Lady Estellise and even if she weren't a princess she was... too much like an adorable little sister for Flynn to think of her as anything else. So Flynn shook his head and answered with a "no."  
  
"That sucks."  
  
"Well, I'm not really interested in dating right now, anyway." Dating got so complicated sometimes. He already had one complicated relationship with Yuri – it was a wonder they'd managed to avoid their latest argument topic for so long already – and Flynn had no desire to add another, even if it did come with things like kissing and sex.  
  
He did miss kissing, though. In fact, he missed kissing far more than he missed sex; after all, if he wanted an orgasm then he could do that for himself. Kissing, however, required a second person be involved.  
  
"You're not?" Yuri tilted his head the side quizzically. "I guess I can't fault that since I'm single again, but... aren't you lonely at all?"  
  
"Sometimes, but seeing you and Repede always makes that go away. What do I need anyone else for?"  
  
For a brief moment Yuri got the strangest look on his face, somehow both heartwarmingly happy and heartrendingly sad all at once. Yuri covered it up almost immediately, but Flynn was certain about what he'd seen and wondered what he'd said wrong.  
  
 _Twenty-One_  
  
Flynn remembered reaching the top of Zaude, his chest aching from where the laser had struck him. It had been mostly healed and, though the medic wanted to take him back to the boats to rest, he'd insisted on seeing Yuri first.  
  
He remembered the look on Lady Estellise's face when he walked out onto the platform. She'd never looked so devastated before. Yuri should have been there, consoling her already, but he was the only one not standing there, waiting.  
  
 _"Where is he?"_  
  
 _"Flynn..."_  
  
 _"Where's Yuri?!"_  
  
 _"He... Flynn, he fell."_  
  
He's not entirely clear on what happened next. He couldn't accept that Yuri wasn't there and had to see the entire damn platform himself, just to be sure that Yuri wasn't lying unconscious in the rubble on the other side.  
  
He doesn't remember leaving Zaude, but he does remember ordering boats out to search the water surrounding the shrine. He remembered long days and sleepless nights that all blurred together. He must have seemed normal enough; he managed to keep a tenuous grip on himself to keep from breaking down, though he grew more frayed around the edges with every negative report on the search.  
  
He remembered the look of pained compassion on Master Ioder's face when he, gently, told Flynn that it was time to stop the search. It was the only time Flynn had ever raised his voice to Ioder and, in the end, he had to concede that the search was unlikely to turn up anything new.  
  
He remembered the moment he admitted to himself that Yuri must be dead. It took all Flynn's strength that night to make the choice not to join him.  
  
He remembered all of that pain and agony and breathed out. As Flynn breathed in, the scent of home (cinnamon and sweat and something undefinable that was purely Yuri) was overwhelming and it helped to sooth away the heartache. The familiar body he held tightly in his arms helped as well.  
  
Flynn would never, ever forget what he'd gone through. But for the first time in far too long, Flynn knew he was going to be okay.  
  
"Flynn," Yuri's voice sounded worried and Flynn couldn't help but think it served him right. "Are you crying?" His own arms rose up to wrap tightly around Flynn's waist.  
  
"Shut up, Yuri," Flynn muttered, burying his face against Yuri's shoulder. He didn't bother to hide his tears.

* * *

It started the night of their duel.  
  
Flynn hadn't lost to Yuri in years, but it felt right that it happened that night. It was relief, really, knowing that Yuri was fighting in top form despite the injuries he must have suffered at Zaude. When Yuri went to Tarqaron, he had to be at his best; if Flynn lost him again – lost him for real – then the world might as well end.  
  
It was that quiet moment, however, after their duel. After they'd talked at little and laughed a lot, Flynn had looked over at Yuri and had a thought. It would be so easy to just roll over and kiss Yuri.  
  
Later, Flynn was able to brush it off as just an aftereffect of his relief at Yuri being alive and his intense fear of losing Yuri in the upcoming days. But the night of the duel he stayed awake, agonizing over why he'd think that about his (very decidedly male) best friend.  
  
Then, the dreams started. He'd dream about kissing Yuri. Sometimes the kisses were chaste and sometimes they were... not. Those were harder to dismiss and Flynn wasn't sure he wanted to dismiss them. He was dreaming about kissing Yuri and he liked those dreams, longing for them even as he tried to tell himself they'd go away.  
  
The more Flynn attempted to ignore the dreams, the more intense they got. It probably wasn't helping that he was sleeping in Yuri's bed basically every night, surrounded by Yuri's scent. On a few embarrassing occasions, he woke up hard with Yuri fast asleep in his arms. He'd managed to extricate himself without waking Yuri each time, but he worried about what would happen when Yuri finally woke up first.  
  
He did try to make himself go back to sleeping in his own room instead of walking to and from the lower quarter every day, but he couldn't sleep in his bed. The last time Flynn tried to sleep there, he woke in the middle of a panic attack. He'd been dressed and halfway to the lower quarter before he managed to completely calm himself.  
  
Flynn simply had to be the first person to see Yuri when he got back into town; he had to sleep surrounded by the evidence that Yuri was still very much alive.  
  
His own behavior was worrying him, though. Flynn had never felt so... he wasn't even sure what he was feeling in the midst of his utter mess of emotions. He'd never been attracted to men before, and he still wasn't, but it seemed that Yuri had become the exception.  
  
All his life, Flynn had loved Yuri, but this was the first time he'd ever considered that he loved Yuri as more than just a friend.  
  
Still, the last thing Flynn wanted to do was spring all of this on Yuri, only to find out months down the line that it was just... reactionary and had faded and their friendship possibly ruined one way or the other.  
  
So Flynn did the only thing he could think of. He went to seek advice.  
  
Guy and Luke had a very nice place in the public quarter, not far from the entrance to the lower quarter. Fortunately Luke was out when Flynn stopped by for a visit. Luke was nice enough and had matured somewhat since the first time Flynn had met him, but was still best described as a 'man-child' or, as Yuri liked to call him, 'Guy's red-headed arm-leech.' The last thing Flynn needed was for Luke to sit around mocking him while he sought relationship advice from Guy, or spreading around what he heard to others. Luke claimed he wasn't a gossip, but he sure as hell couldn't keep a secret.  
  
"Oh, god, this is going to be an awkward conversation," Guy said, once Flynn had – haltingly – explained his situation. "Is this how parents feel before they give the birds and the bees talk? No wonder my uncle just gave me a bunch of pamphlets, a couple of erotic romances, and told me to use protection."  
  
Flynn blushed hotly. "Guy...!"  
  
"Sorry, sorry, I'm not trying to make fun of you or anything. This is just... awkward for both of us." Guy took a deep breath and then said, "okay, so, Flynn, when I first met you, it was pretty obvious that Yuri was the most important person in your life. Everything was about him, for you. You love him and I could tell. But... it didn't seem like you were romantically in love with him. I'd never have gotten involved with him if I thought you felt that way about him because... well, Yuri has been in love with you for longer than I've known him.  
  
"Also, if you tell him I said that he will stalk me down in the dead of night and maim me. Please do not tell him I told you."  
  
"He's... no, I... I would have noticed..." Flynn shook his head slowly. Surely he wasn't so blind as to have missed something like that. Yeah, there had been a few occasions where he'd flattered himself to think that, maybe, Yuri was checking him out, but...  
  
"He's gotten good at hiding it, for the most part, but it helps that you're kind of oblivious," Guy told him dryly. "Trust me; Yuri is very much in love with you.  
  
"The thing is, you've always thought of yourself as straight. That's what is really bothering you, isn't it?" Guy raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Those dreams of yours... is it just kissing him? Or do they stray into the territory of having sex with him?"  
  
Flynn found himself blushing as he answered, "not quite sex, but... but definitely headed in that direction."  
  
Guy nodded thoughtfully. "I think that what you need is to prove to yourself of is that it isn't just your subconscious interested in doing those things with him. You're feelings are real and I think you know that. What it seems like you're really afraid of is that those feelings won't be enough. That even though you're romantically attracted to him, it doesn't necessarily mean you're sexually attracted to him."  
  
"Well, it doesn't," Flynn muttered.  
  
"No, it doesn't always work that way," Guy agreed placidly. "I just don't think it'll be a problem for you. If it were anyone other than Yuri, yeah you'd screw it all up and wreck your friendship. But this is Yuri and he has always been special to you. If anything, this has been developing for you for years and explains your vague and irrational dislike of me that stopped once Yuri and I broke up."  
  
"I didn't dislike you," Flynn objected. "I thought you were really good for him."  
  
"You just didn't want me to kiss him or sleep with him." Guy snickered when Flynn scowled at him. "You were jealous," he added, his voice turning lilting and teasing before he grew serious again.  
  
"What you need to do is act on those dreams of yours, Flynn. All those things you're subconscious wants to do with Yuri, imagine it while you're awake. Go to your... happy place, see what turns you on, and take the time you need to prove to yourself that you are capable of making things work with Yuri. Just don't take too long; you are the only one who can make him truly happy, Flynn, and he's waited a long time for you to figure that out."  
  
Flynn nodded hesitantly. He hadn't been daring enough to touch himself while thinking about Yuri that way, yet. Flynn worried that it would cross some sort of line... that it would be taking advantage of Yuri in some way. Would Yuri be okay with being fantasized about like that? Or would knowing someone fantasized about him in that way make Yuri uncomfortable? If Guy was right, though, and Yuri did feel the same way Flynn did, then... maybe Yuri fantasized about Flynn too.  
  
Warmth spread through Flynn at the thought.  
  
"So... your uncle gave you pamphlets and novels? All Yuri and I got from Hanks was a 'treat your partner with respect and be responsible about protection' speech. So what I do know about sex mostly comes from fumbling around with Marie and, well, that was... almost four years ago." Flynn doubted his face could get any redder as he asked, "I don't suppose you still have those pamphlets?"  
  
Guy snickered. "No, but Luke has a large collection of rather innocuous looking erotic novels." Standing up, Guy looked over at the bookshelf with an indecisive expression for a long moment and then, grinning, he walked over and grabbed a book. He settled back on the couch and handed the book over to Flynn. "This is the tamest one we've got, I think, so it should give you a general idea of what gay sex is like. Just... skip the plot; it's really lame. The sex scenes are pretty well described, though, so," Guy waggled his eyebrows suggestively, "pick a scene and imagine that you and Yuri are doing what the characters are doing."  
  
The book itself was a rather ordinary looking with a red cover and small silvery print on the spine that read 'Forever Together.' It didn't look a thing like the 'bodice-ripper' romances he vaguely recalled Marie reading. Flynn was rather relieved by that; the last thing he wanted was for someone to see him with a book that had half-dressed men in dramatic poses on the cover; as Commandant, he did have a reputation to maintain... and he would have died of embarrassment regardless.  
  
"Well, Luke should be home soon so, unless you want to explain to him what you're doing with his book, I should probably kick you out now." Guy stood up and headed towards the door.  
  
Flynn followed him and thanked Guy for the advice when he reached the doorway.  
  
"Not a problem. Just..." Guy grinned, "when you two do get together, make sure I'm the first to know. I'm thinking that maybe it's time I join that ongoing betting pool at the Comet." His grin turned into a smirk.  
  
"There's a betting pool about Yuri and me?" Flynn all but squeaked, startled and amused and outraged all at once.  
  
"Yup." Guy laughed as Flynn spluttered for a moment and then subsided with a sigh.  
  
"Say hi to your arm-leech for me," Flynn muttered petulantly as he turned to walk off while Guy just laughed harder.  
  
 _Twenty-Two_  
  
A few nights after talking to Guy, Flynn had the evening to himself. Yuri was out on a mission for his guild and wouldn't be back for a couple of days. Flynn's paperwork load could wait for the night and no one was expecting him to be anywhere. So Flynn wound up in his room, in bed, his right hand curled around his erection.  
  
Imagining that Yuri was the one touching him, though, wasn't exactly easy. Flynn knew what his own hand felt like on his body and... Yuri's hands were different. Yuri's fingers were a little longer and more slender and, anyway, he was left handed...  
  
Flynn switched to his left hand. He wasn't used to jerking himself off with that hand, making it easier to imagine that it was Yuri's fingers stroking him. Flynn came not too long after, his thrusts a little wilder than normal, and Yuri's name on his lips.  
  
On his birthday a few days later, Flynn was relieved by how easy it was to act natural around Yuri. There was some awkwardness at first, but Yuri didn't seem to notice and they spent the day together just wandering around the lower quarter together. All the while, Flynn wished he had an excuse to reach out and hold Yuri's hand.  
  
Some weeks later, Flynn finally read through enough of the book's sex scenes to have worked up the nerve to try fingering himself. It sounded kind of weird, really, but the characters in the book certainly enjoyed the act. So Flynn slicked up the fingers on his right hand with an apple gel and reached down to circle his hole. His eyes widened and then slid shut as a whine he barely recognized as his own escaped his lips. Suddenly the rimming scene from the book made so much more sense; if a finger felt good, a tongue had to be amazing.  
  
Slipping the finger inside himself, Flynn rolled his hips experimentally. It felt a little strange, but not in a bad way. So he added a second finger and stretched himself a little, pumping the fingers in and out. All in all, it wasn't too bad and, according to the book, it could get so much better.  
  
Flynn knew it was supposed to be enjoyable to press up against his prostate, but that didn't really prepare him for the reality of it. Pleasure seemed shoot up and down his spine, as if he'd been hit by a lightning spell, and he cried out at how overwhelmingly good he felt.  
  
That was when his mind decided to conjure up the image of what it would look like if Yuri was the one doing this to him and suddenly Flynn's hips were thrusting into one hand and back against his fingers, as if of their own volition. His fingers rubbed against that spot again and again until Flynn came with a shout.  
  
However, though Flynn might be willing to experiment in that bed, he still couldn't sleep in it. So, Flynn showered, dressed, grabbed a bag with a change of clothes and pajamas in it, and then headed to Yuri's place to sleep. Yuri wasn't supposed to be back until the morning, so Flynn was hoping he'd have a chance to see Yuri before he had to be in for work.  
  
Maybe it was time to take an afternoon off and confess to Yuri how he felt. No... it was definitely time.  
  
Flynn hoped Guy was right about Yuri's feelings for him. If Yuri rejected him... Flynn knew his heart would break.  
  
However, once Flynn got to Yuri's he still couldn't sleep. Yuri's scent was everywhere in that bed and Flynn's mind kept flashing back to what he'd been doing in another bed not so long ago. It was one thing to fantasize about Yuri in Flynn's bed. Doing that in Yuri's bed, without Yuri's knowledge or approval... completely unacceptable.  
  
To distract himself, Flynn pulled out his new reading glasses, propped himself up against the wall, and grabbed the historical fiction novel he'd brought along out of his bag. A chapter or so later, Flynn had nodded off.

* * *

There was a slight pressure against his lips. It was there and then it was gone and Flynn frowned slightly at the loss. There was something kind of nice about the feeling, but he couldn't place why that was or why he wanted it back.  
  
If he wanted answers, it seemed he'd have to actually wake all the way up.  
  
Blinking sleepily, Flynn brought a hand up to his lips thoughtfully. They still tingled slightly, as if... as if someone had kissed him. But who...?  
  
Flynn looked up and saw Yuri standing there, looking slightly fuzzy through the glasses. He looked sort of panicky too, though. Had he kissed Flynn or was that just wishful thinking?  
  
Blushing, Flynn tried to ask, "um, Yuri... did you...? I mean... that is..." but he was unable to actually voice his question.  
  
"Did you have a weird dream?" Yuri's voice was unsteady and, really, that was all the answer Flynn needed.  
  
Stretching as he stood up, Flynn felt heat settle low in his belly as he realized Yuri was looking him over. There was desire in the other's gaze and Flynn wondered how he'd ever been so oblivious to this. He'd seen Yuri looking at him this way before, but it was always so brief he'd dismissed it every time. Now, the knowledge of what he was seeing burned through him.  
  
Walking up to Yuri, Flynn wrapped his arms around the raven-haired man's shoulders. His voice rougher than normal, Flynn informed Yuri, "it isn't very nice to steal a kiss when I can't enjoy it properly." Then he leaned in and stole a kiss of his own.  
  
Yuri froze at first and Flynn was half-convinced he would pull away. But then it was like a switch flipped and Yuri pressed back, taking control of the kiss. Yuri's arms wrapped tightly around Flynn's waist and his tongue sought entrance to Flynn's mouth, which was quickly granted.  
  
The feeling and taste of Yuri's inquisitive tongue, slipping into Flynn's mouth and methodically investigating the entirety of what it found there, left Flynn feeling rather blissful. Every time their tongues tangled, heat shivered through Flynn's body. When Yuri started to pull away, he chased Yuri's tongue and found himself running an investigation of his own. All the while, they held each other tightly as though the other might slip away otherwise.  
  
Then it stopped. Yuri pulled away, breathless, and dropped onto the chair at his desk. "Flynn... you... but you're straight!" He looked adorably, and understandably, confused.  
  
"Not entirely," Flynn disagreed. "Actually... I'm not really sure when the last time I was attracted to a woman was." He hadn't even thought of that until now, but it was true. He'd found Hisca and Chastel attractive, but hadn't been interested in them as more than friends. Since then, he'd practically needed prompting to notice that Sodia was pretty or Lady Estellise was cute or Judith was sexy (and, considering that her everyday outfits covered less than some swimsuits, that was really saying something); he was starting to think that, maybe, he should have been questioning just how attracted he was to women long before realizing what his feelings for Yuri had grown into.  
  
"So, what are you saying? I know you're not gay, Flynn," Yuri insisted, folding his arms and looking away.  
  
Yuri wasn't wrong, though. Flynn wasn't interested in men in general, which was probably why it never occurred to him to reassess himself until now. So he said as much. "Well, no, I'm not attracted to men... just you. I don't know what that makes me, really, other than probably a little crazy." He smirked a little when Yuri scowled at him. "It seems a little pointless to try and label myself when there's no one else I'd accept at my side if you won't have me."  
  
Yuri flushed and looked away, swallowing nervously. "If this is because you're relieved I survived Zaude..."  
  
"No." Flynn knelt down in front of Yuri, still feeling emboldened by their kiss. "I thought that too, at first. But what I feel for you... it's been building up over time and I was too oblivious to see it. My inability to sleep well anywhere but here... that's because of Zaude. My kissing you is because... I want to kiss you. I want to do a lot more than kiss you, actually. I want to tell you and show you that I love you as many times as it takes until you believe me and then as much as I can after that so you'll never forget."  
  
"You really are ridiculous," Yuri muttered, blushing. "You say the weirdest things."  
  
"I mean it, Yuri. I love you."  
  
Yuri shook his head slowly. "You can't," he denied flatly. "Just being friends with me jeopardizes your position as the Commandant. The Council has made their dislike of me pretty clear. They would have overruled Ioder's second pardon of my crimes if they thought they could get away with it."  
  
"But they couldn't; the Council doesn't have the power to overrule the Emperor's official decrees, such as pardons. Would you like to know what else they can't overrule Master Ioder on? My job. They cannot displace the Commandant of the Knights." Flynn took Yuri's hands in his own and squeezed. "They can recommend my replacement as much as they like, but so long as Master Ioder wants me to be Commandant, their recommendations mean absolutely nothing."  
  
"You still need the Council's approval to push through the changes necessary to make the Empire a better place," Yuri argued, refusing to give ground on this.  
  
"And, so... what you're saying is that to do my job I have to sacrifice my happiness?" Flynn reluctantly let go of Yuri's hands. "I don't buy that. If you don't feel the same way I do, then don't make excuses. Just say so. As long as we're friends, I won't... I won't bother you with what I feel anymore..." Flynn paused to take a shuddering breath and then added, "but you did kiss me first. So tell me you don't have feelings for me, that the way you kissed me each time was a mistake. Do it without lying and I'll back off."  
  
"Flynn..." Yuri trailed off and then shuddered, covering his face with his hands. "Fuck," he whispered.  
  
"Yuri..."  
  
"You don't get it, Flynn!" Yuri's hands dropped away; the expression on his face was almost broken. "You can't... I'm not good enough for you. I'm a murderer and I... I don't want my sins to taint your life as well."  
  
Flynn swallowed his instinctive reaction, which was to argue. Instead he breathed in and out slowly, deliberately, to calm the part of him inclined to smack Yuri in the arm. "I'm in love with an idiot," he muttered, pleased when Yuri bristled at him. Taking off his glasses, Flynn folded the stems and set them aside on the table as he tried to think of the right words to say.  
  
"You are not some cold blooded killer who goes around murdering for fun and profit," Flynn told Yuri quietly. "The people you've murdered... I don't agree with your decisions. But I understand why you did what you did and respect the reasons you felt compelled to do so; you protect people, Yuri. Only now you're trying to protect me from yourself not because I actually need to be protected from you, but because you apparently don't trust yourself."  
  
"Flynn..."  
  
"When you fell off Zaude, I thought you were dead. I spent days searching for you in the water, all with the certainty that when your body was finally found, it wouldn't look at all like you," Flynn shuddered at the thought of a water-bloated corpse bearing Yuri's face. Yuri looked pretty ill at the idea as well. "It's not something I wanted to see and, honestly, every day that the search came up empty was as much a relief as it was a disappointment. That was one more day I could pretend you weren't dead; one more day I could try to convince myself I'd get to see you again.  
  
"Then Master Ioder ordered me to call off the search and... I sort of flipped. I doubt anyone has ever yelled at him like that before." Flynn stood and rubbed his knees, moving to sit on the bed. "I can't think of the last time I felt so angry and... I hated him so much, because in making me call off the search, he was making me accept that you were dead."  
  
"I wasn't dead, though."  
  
"No, you weren't. But how the hell was I supposed to know that?" Flynn looked away. "I thought you were dead, Yuri. I thought... I was never again going to see that irritating and gorgeous cocky smile of yours or hear you laugh at me for saying something you found ridiculous or watch you get that horrified look on your face that shows up every time I try to cook something or..." Flynn's voice cracked a little. "Never be able to reach out and touch you, hold you, be surrounded by the scent of you, because all those things and everything else about you... that's home to me. You're home to me, Yuri, and you were dead.  
  
"I wanted to be dead too, if that meant maybe I could be with you again."  
  
"Oh, god, Flynn..." Yuri was across the room and holding Flynn tightly in seconds, as if suddenly needing to reassure himself that Flynn was still whole and breathing.  
  
"You'd be so disappointed in me, though. That's the thought that stopped me from trying. If I just gave up on everything we'd promised each other as kids..." Flynn shook his head. "So don't tell me what I can and can't feel about you because you're everything to me. I need you in my life, Yuri. Stupid as you might think it sounds, I need you about as much as I need to breathe."  
  
"I'm sorry," Yuri murmured against Flynn's hair. "I didn't realize. I thought... I thought I was the only one who felt that way. I got so used to thinking I could never have you."  
  
"If you want me, I'm yours," Flynn told him, feeling oddly liberated at having finally admitted to the worst moments of his depression. That was what came back to him in his nightmares and sent him fleeing to Yuri's bed: the empty certainty that Yuri was dead and had taken everything of worth in Flynn's life along with him.  
  
"I'm not sure want is a strong enough word," Yuri told him, kissing Flynn's temple and cheek and neck before finally pressing against Flynn's lips. He went slowly, conveying a slew of emotions that Flynn wanted desperately to understand.  
  
So Flynn pulled Yuri closer, trying to reciprocate by putting all his feelings into the kiss as well. When Yuri moaned and moved Flynn so that he was straddling Yuri's lap, he got the impression he'd succeeded. There was a hardness pressing against his stomach and it took him a fuzzy minute to realize that Yuri was growing aroused... and so was he. Then Yuri trapped Flynn's lower lip in his teeth and gnawed slightly.  
  
Gasping and moaning, Flynn's hips rocked against Yuri's as if of their own accord. He had to bury his face in the crook of Yuri's neck to try to compose himself.  
  
Then Yuri's lips started in on Flynn's neck and – god – he'd never considered that he was sensitive there before. But the way Yuri's tongue traced over his collar... Flynn whined and tilted his head to give Yuri better access. His hands reached up to fumble with the buttons on Yuri's shirt.  
  
Yuri rolled his hips against Flynn's and they both groaned and clutched at each other. "Oh..." Yuri's voice had deepened, taking on a gravelly edge. "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"  
  
"Yes," Flynn hissed, his own voice hoarse and unfamiliar. "I've been... fantasizing about this, about you," he said, yanking Yuri's shirt off and pulling Yuri in close for another kiss. He tangled his hands in Yuri's hair, enjoying the soft strands slipping through his fingers.  
  
Then Yuri let out a little growl and flipped them over so that Flynn lay on across the length of the bed, Yuri straddled on top of him. He returned his attention to Flynn's neck, alternating between nibbling and sucking. Flynn yelped and grabbed Yuri's hips; the raven-haired man got the hint and began to grind steadily against Flynn.  
  
Then the bed let out a rather ominous sounding groan and they froze.  
  
Yuri sat up, settling back on Flynn's thighs and putting some space between their groins. "Maybe we should wait on this," he panted. "Your bed is... sturdier, right?"  
  
"Bigger, too," Flynn replied, just as breathless as Yuri. "I don't want to risk making your bed collapse, Yuri, but... I don't want to stop either."  
  
Yuri snickered; he tried to smother his laughter by covering his mouth with his hands, but it was too late. Uncontrollable laughter spilled out of him, his shoulders shaking with the strength of his amusement. Flynn reached up to pull Yuri's hands away and then, with a smile of his own, he listened to his favorite sound and watched his favorite smile.  
  
"We're... we're kind of ridiculous, aren't we?" Yuri bent over and buried his laughter against Flynn's chest. Muffled, he elaborated, "the only thing between us having sex right now is that the bed might collapse." He giggled again and looked up. "There's always the floor, but I want my first time with you in a bed. We can be more adventurous later..."  
  
Flynn propped himself up on his elbows so he could kiss Yuri. "Yeah... I want our first time to be in bed too. I..."  
  
There was a scratching from outside the door.  
  
"Repede," they chorused.  
  
The dog in question let out a whine and scratched at the door again.  
  
"How about I get changed and we let Repede in here while we go spend the rest of tonight at my place?" Flynn asked nervously. It had been years since he'd last had sex... what if Yuri thought he was terrible at it?  
  
He'd just have to let Yuri take the lead and... learn by asking and doing. It was exciting, all the new things he had to learn about Yuri.  
  
"The bed is bigger there, huh?"  
  
"Sturdier too," Flynn responded with a soft laugh and a hopeful smile.  
  
Yuri's gaze lowered towards Flynn's tented pajama pants. "So... um..." Yuri was actually blushing and stammering. He looked cute with his cheeks flushed that way... and Flynn was never going to mention that because Yuri would not appreciate the sentiment. "You and Marie... the two of you had sex, but... I'm the first one since her, aren't I?"  
  
"Yeah." Flynn nodded. "You're the only one since her." It was eerie, really, the way Yuri sometimes seemed to read his mind.  
  
"It's just... you know sex is different between two guys than between a man and a woman...? Well, not all sex, but..."  
  
"I... sort of went to Guy for advice and he... lent me one of Luke's books," Flynn interrupted. He knew his face had turned beet red. "I wanted to get an idea of what it... sex... might be like if you... if you felt the same way about me that I do for you." Now Yuri had them both stammering.  
  
"You... you borrowed porn – gay porn – and read it and..." he trailed off, eyes wide and hungry looking.  
  
"Fantasized about you."  
  
For a long moment, Yuri just stared down at Flynn. His mouth opened, as if to say something, and then shut again.  
  
Another whine came from the direction of the door.  
  
"Repede! Go stay with Karol!" Then Yuri leaned in and kissed Flynn fiercely. "I'm sure the bed can take it," he muttered and started pulling off Flynn's pajama top.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor dog. It's late, it's cold, and his horny owners have kicked him out of his own home. Though I'm sure he thinks its about damn time those two figured things out.
> 
> The last half of this story was re-written about half-a-dozen times at least. Seriously, Flynn did not want to cooperate with me at all, Guy was laughing at everyone, and Yuri was having a nervous breakdown.


	13. Aprons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – I own a dog named Estelle, but she isn't even pink. So I don't actually own anything from Tales of Vesperia.
> 
> Outfit/item – apron

_Side One_  
  
Flynn was cooking again.  
  
Having being guilted into eating Flynn's cooking on occasion over the years, Yuri was willing to take the horrible food every now and again if it made Flynn feel better and not think he was burdening Yuri all the time. The others, however, were less willing to gamble with the possibility of having an edible dinner for the sake of Flynn's piece of mind. Patty was leading the others in repeated attempts to make Flynn stop, which were so humorous to watch that Yuri couldn't seem to feel particularly motivated to help. Since they were at an Inn this evening, this particular bit of entertainment was occurring in an actual kitchen as Yuri watched from the employee's breakfast nook. They'd arrived in town too late for dinner, but the Inn's proprietor knew them well enough to be alright with letting them use the Inn's cookware.  
  
Flynn was dressed in casual clothes with an apron on over them, flour smudged on his cheek, and determination written on his face; as far as Yuri was concerned, the visual actually made letting Flynn cook kind of worth it. Yuri enjoyed watching the way Flynn's eyes darkened from concentrating on the task at hand or the way the bow that tied the apron off in the back moved along the small of Flynn's back, seeming to bounce enticingly over Flynn's ass and igniting an entirely different hunger in Yuri's body.  
  
The flour smudge, of course, just begged for Yuri to come over and lick it off.  
  
But Yuri waited and watched with half-lidded eyes and faux-apathy as the others tried to convince Flynn to let them take over the cooking.  
  
"Yuri! Come on!" Patty huffed at him, finally ready to demand Yuri help out. "He's your best friend. Surely you know the best way to convince him to let someone else take over. So get up and help us!"  
  
Nodding, Yuri smirked and stood; there was something he wanted from his blond that would be well worth postponing dinner for. He sauntered over to Flynn and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. Flynn was by a counter, not the stove, so what he had planned seemed safe enough.  
  
When Flynn turned to face him, Yuri pressed against Flynn in a searing kiss. There was a clatter as whatever Flynn had been holding dropped to the floor. At first, Flynn tried to pull away, distracted by the noise, but Yuri pushed his advantage and slid his tongue against Flynn's just so...  
  
Flynn let out a quiet noise and brought his arms up so that he could grip the back of Yuri's shirt while Yuri pressed him against the counter. Once Yuri felt Flynn was sufficiently dazed, and turned on, he pulled back. "Flynn," he murmured, "the others seem to really want to cook and I," he leaned in to nip at Flynn's earlobe before continuing, "really want you." He took a step backwards and nodded towards the stairs. "I think I'm going to bed now. Maybe I'll get a sandwich later or something." He leaned in, licked the flour off Flynn's cheek, and then turn away. Grabbing a set of keys for one of the rooms they'd rented from a pinker-than-normal Estelle, Yuri took one for himself and tossed the matching key to Flynn, who caught it on instinct.  
  
Then Yuri turned and sauntered up the stairs. He paused at the top to listen as Flynn told everyone a hasty, and flustered, goodnight and hurried to catch up. Yuri smirked a little as he considered what he was in store for that night... and at remembering how Judy had already taken over the cooking by the time he'd pulled away from that kiss.  
  
With any luck, there would be leftovers waiting for him once he'd sated his more pressing hunger.  
  
 _Side Two_  
  
There were perks to home-ownership that Flynn had not considered until that first morning in their new house.  
  
Flynn woke to the smell of coffee and eggs, which was wafting into the bedroom through the door that Yuri must have left open when he'd gotten up to start breakfast. While Flynn would have preferred to have woken up curled around Yuri, this was a pretty good way to start the day.  
  
So he got up and dressed and followed his nose to the kitchen. Then he stopped and blinked and stared.  
  
Yuri had already finished cooking breakfast and was laying it out on the table (their table, which Yuri had tried to convince Flynn they ought to 'break in' the night before... until Flynn pointed out that breaking in their new bed was far more important). Yuri was doing this while wearing an apron.  
  
To be more clear, Yuri was wearing only the apron.  
  
Oh, yes, there were definitely perks to home-ownership that Flynn had never considered.


	14. Waiting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – It's Namco Bandai's sandbox; I'm just building sandcastles for so long as I can play here.
> 
> Outfit – Theoretical waiter outfit (Yuri)

It was bound to happen eventually.  
  
Adjusting his red tie and peering into the mirror, Yuri wondered again why he'd thought this would be a good idea.  
  
Sure, the others were all sick and they were almost out of money to pay for things like rooms at the Inn and food, but surely... surely there was some other job Yuri could have picked up for the evening other than waiting tables. He'd been a waiter before, back at the Comet Tavern, and he'd been moved into the kitchen after his first few days on the job more because of his tendency to piss off the customers than for his cooking skills.  
  
It was somehow worse that this time he had to dress up, just to make the indignity that much more painful. Not only would he have to deal with drunkards who hit on him because they thought he was a woman – or didn't think he was a woman, as the case may be – and assholes who couldn't be bothered to understand that sometimes you had to wait more than five minutes for your food to finish cooking. Somehow, Yuri always managed to attract the worst tippers and he wasn't shy about telling people that they sucked.  
  
He never messed with their food, though. That was a line Yuri thought was beneath him to cross, no matter how much he might want to spit in someone's food or drink.  
  
At least he got to keep on his normal pants and boots. His shirt was a long-sleeved white button-up that, unfortunately, he had buttoned all the way up so the tie would look right. Just the feeling of the itchy fabric against his throat made Yuri want to tug at the collar, though. There was a red band around his right bicep that Yuri didn't really get the point of, but the pub owner thought the outfit needed it, so he was wearing it.  
  
Honestly, Yuri thought he looked like the manager of a public quarter restaurant... or the dealer for an underground poker ring.  
  
"Oh, good, you're changed." The owner grinned at Yuri from the now open door. "Come on, no dawdling. The customers are starting to show up for dinner, so I'll need to show you which tables you'll be working. Oh, that... looks really good on you," she added, when Yuri turned to face her. "You can keep the uniform along with your tips and tonight's wages.  
  
"I'm sorry your friends are sick," she added absently, "but this was definitely good timing. Apparently, the Knights are back in town. We're going to be absolutely packed this evening and I can use all the help I can get."  
  
Yuri blanched as he followed her out of the room. Hopefully he wouldn't be familiar with any of the Knights who showed up that evening...

* * *

Naturally, one of his tables was Leblanc, Adecor, and Boccos. It figured, really, that they'd show up and have a chance to ridicule him. They were a slow table, too, which might have been annoying except, for all that the Tweedles teased him, Leblanc seemed genuinely concerned about why Yuri was waiting tables instead of working a mission with his guild.  
  
Yuri ended up admitting the rest had been hit by the flu, something he'd had some days earlier. Since he was the only one not sick now, he was the only one who could add to their dwindling funds without dipping into their savings for buying a guild-house of their own.  
  
"Even Sir Schw... er... Raven is ill?"  
  
"Yeah. He's doing better than Karol, though. The kid's fever was pretty high, last I checked..." Yuri couldn't help the concern he knew was in his voice and on his face. If Karol's fever didn't break soon, all the money Yuri got that evening would be going to a doctor instead of the Inn.  
  
The three Knights actually looked pretty concerned as well, so Yuri figured they just might end up being his best tippers all night. That was definitely worth any aggravation they might otherwise cause.  
  
Yuri also sort of had the impression that those three might also be looking out for him. One of his other tables had been filled with rowdy customers who'd pinched his ass and propositioned him when he'd taken their drink orders. He'd managed to keep from punching the guy who'd pinched him, but only by thinking about how much his friends needed the money.  
  
When Yuri came back out with the drinks, however, that group was suddenly on their best behavior and shooting nervous looks at him and the Schwann Brigade's finest.  
  
As curious as Yuri was about what might have been said, his pride prevented him from asking.  
  
The trio did prove to be his best tippers that evening, closely followed by a group of strange, but oddly endearing, elderly ladies who'd called Yuri 'dear' and giggled every time one of them said something mildly flirtatious to him.  
  
By the time the night finally drew to a close, Yuri was exhausted and ready to collapse. So he only managed to put up a token protest when the bar's owner handed him more money than his tips and wages actually amounted to. She just smiled at him, closed his fingers over the gald, and told him to go take care of his family.  
  
He was sort of aware of the walk back to the Inn and only fuzzily remembered asking Judy how everyone was doing. Karol's fever was the last to break, but it had and now the kid was sleeping peacefully enough. Judy wouldn't hear of Yuri taking her place in watching over the others either; though her fever had ended only that morning, she swore Krityans recovered faster than humans and she'd slept plenty while he was working.

* * *

He woke up late the next day, the others having apparently decided to let him oversleep without fuss. The afternoon sun streaming in through the windows, which was rather pretty, but Yuri was far more interested to find Flynn sitting beside his bed. There was a book in the blond's hands and glasses perched on his nose.  
  
"You have reading glasses," Yuri observed sleepily.  
  
"I'm not getting old," Flynn immediately said, sliding a bookmark onto the page he was reading and then snapping the book shut.  
  
"Wasn't going to say anything like that," Yuri assured him, smiling in amusement and resisting the urge to tease him. "You look good. Kind of like a sexy librarian, but with battle armor."  
  
Blushing, Flynn set the book on Yuri's bedside table and plucked the glasses off his face to place them atop the novel. "You slept in your clothes from last night."  
  
"Did I?" Yuri peeled off the covers to see that, though he'd ditched the tie and his boots and undone a few buttons on the shirt, he was definitely still wearing his waiter's outfit. "I was really tired," he admitted. "When did you get here?"  
  
"This morning. The Schwann Brigade showed up and started telling me all about how apparently everyone in your guild but you had the flu... and that there were a lot of people hitting on you in your waiter's outfit." Flynn's eyes trailed over Yuri's body, bringing a blush to the guildman's cheeks. "Mmm... even rumpled, it looks good on you," he declared.  
  
"Bet it'd look better scattered on the floor," Yuri offered innocently, hands reaching to undo the rest of his shirt's buttons. Flynn, however, practically flew from the chair to the bed in his haste to replace Yuri's hands with his own.  
  
Yuri laughed and then moaned as Flynn's mouth descended upon his. He didn't notice, until his shirt was lying on the ground with the red band and Flynn was pressing him back down against the sheets, that Flynn had the tie in his hands. Well, actually, what made Yuri notice was how Flynn looped the tie around the headboard – and Yuri's hands – and was tying it in a firm slip-knot.  
  
Testing the tie, Yuri knew he could undo it if he wanted, but... Flynn was being kind of kinky. Yuri wanted to see where this was going.  
  
"Must have been frustrating," Flynn opined, drawing back with an amused expression, "putting up with waiting tables again last night while worrying about how everyone else was doing."  
  
"Yeah...?" Yuri pouted a little as all Flynn stared down at Yuri, eyes darkening with lust at the sight. Squirming a little in irritation, Yuri asked, "is all you plan to do stare at me?"  
  
Flynn smirked and then tugged off his own shirt, tossing it aside. "All in good time," he murmured, crawling onto the bed and running the tips of his fingers lightly over Yuri's chest. "You really deserve a treat, after everything you put up with last night," he added, taking a peaked nipple between his fingers and twisting.  
  
Yuri yelped and his back arched, pushing into Flynn's hand. "This is certainly a promising start," he gasped out.  
  
Running his hand down Yuri's chest again, Flynn murmured, "tell me what you want me to do."  
  
"Tell you..." Yuri's eyes widened and his mouth went dry at the smirking expression that lit Flynn's face. "I want you to take my pants and underwear off."  
  
So Flynn did. In the slowest – agonizingly slow – way imaginable, brushing his fingertips along Yuri's thighs and under sensitive knees while raining kisses along behind those fingers. By the time Flynn finished pulling off Yuri's pants, Yuri's mind was in a haze.  
  
"Now what?" Flynn asked, tracing randomly along Yuri's inner thighs.  
  
"Y-you're wearing too much," Yuri complained.  
  
"That doesn't sound like an order."  
  
"Strip."  
  
Flynn smirked and undressed. "Now what?"  
  
"You're really going to make me tell you what to do every step of the way?" Yuri sounded as incredulous as he felt. This was... this was actually incredibly erotic. Flynn was Commandant of the Imperial Knights, far more likely to give orders than take them. Moreover, Flynn had always had as much difficulty with Yuri's leadership as Yuri had with his. Their differences often led to difficulties with agreeing or compromising and had resulted in their numerous duels over the years and a set rules for those duels that they hadn't needed to renegotiate since they were seventeen.  
  
"I want to hear you tell me what you want."  
  
Yuri tugged his wrists against the fabric binding him to the headboard in order to remind himself that he was tied to the bed. It wasn't so much that Flynn wanted to be ordered around; Flynn wanted to hear Yuri talk dirty.  
  
It was still incredibly arousing to be telling Flynn what to do like this.  
  
Fuck.  
  
So Yuri told Flynn to lick and suck and nip at his nipples and then twisted in the sheets, writhing in pleasure as Flynn did exactly that. Yuri told Flynn to mark up his neck, groaning throatily at the feeling of Flynn's teeth and mouth leaving a trail of love bites. He told Flynn to do the same to his thighs and then – he'd deny it was begging – he managed to stammer out his need for Flynn to finger him and suck him off.  
  
Then, dazed and his arms a little numb, he quietly asked Flynn to untie him. Leaning into Flynn's touch, he waited for Flynn to massage feeling back into each arm and then started to reach down to touch Flynn.  
  
Taking Yuri's hands in his own, Flynn said, "I got off when you did." He smirked and then licked a marked spot on Yuri's collar bone. "So... what did you like more? Being tied up? Or telling me what to do?"  
  
"Both," Yuri muttered, snuggling against Flynn. "I hope my clothes aren't too rumpled," he muttered. "I was going to do another shift waiting tables tonight. We still need the extra money."  
  
"The tie has seen better days," Flynn told him. "I think you tore it a little when you came."  
  
"I did? Huh... I didn't even notice." He hadn't liked that tie too much anyway. At least, not until Flynn re-purposed it. If it was torn...  
  
Maybe he'd get a new one. He might not like it around his neck, but around his wrists...  
  
Yeah. He'd get a new one.


	15. Sunrise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Tales of Vesperia belongs to Bandai Namco. "What a Year for a New Year" belongs to Dan Wilson.
> 
> Outfit/Item – Santa hat

_What a year for a new year_  
 _We need it like we needed life I guess_  
 _Last one left us lying in a mess_  
 _What a year for a new year_  
  
Yuri had a wonderful singing voice. He didn't sing often, which Flynn thought was a shame. The emotion Yuri put into the lyrics was indescribably beautiful.  
  
So if there was a tear running down Flynn's cheek, he certainly wasn't about to be ashamed that Yuri's singing had brought it about.  
  
 _What a night for a sunrise_  
 _And we thought the dark would never end_  
 _Reaching out to try to find a friend_  
 _What a night for a sunrise_  
 _Sunrise_  
  
For whatever reason, Yuri had left their table a few minutes earlier, red and white Santa hat perched on his head, and he'd seated himself at the tavern's piano. He tapped a few keys experimentally, ran through a couple of chord progressions and octaves, just testing out whether it was in tune or if he'd have to compensate for certain notes being too sharp or flat.  
  
Then Yuri started to play.  
  
Flynn had known that the singing was coming, as had everyone else who lived in the lower quarter and knew Yuri well enough. But the others – Lady Estellise, Rita, and Yuri's guild friends – had watched in shock and awe as Yuri's fingers gently knocked out a melody and his voice reached out to touch in them their desire for a better year and better lives and a better world.  
  
 _What a day for new day_  
 _And our star shines like a miracle_  
 _And our world is almost beautiful again_  
 _What a day for a new day_  
 _New day_  
  
It had certainly been a trying year.  
  
The narrowly prevented war between the Empire and the Guilds, the murders Yuri had committed, Alexei's treachery, the Adephagos... and Yuri had put up with far more than all of that. There had nearly been a war between the guilds that Yuri had apparently helped prevent and then there was the thief he'd chased across two contents...  
  
The loss of the blastia was the hardest part of the whole year. Rita's inventions were helping mitigate the loss, especially the portable heaters now that it was winter, but there were those who didn't want to admit that giving up the blastia was a fair trade for not dying. Of course, they hadn't wanted to die, they just didn't want to admit that giving up the blastia had been necessary.  
  
Idiots.  
  
 _What a year for a new year_  
  
But things were changing for the better regardless.  
  
Older members of the Imperial Council were being supplanted by their younger heirs. Some of them were amiable towards the Guilds. The current council members not up for retirement were willing to admit they'd screwed up with Ragou and that peace with the Guilds was desirable. None had objected to Yuri's second full-pardon... at least, they hadn't objected where Master Ioder or Flynn could hear. He had no doubt they'd grumbled elsewhere. But Yuri had saved the world, which meant he'd saved those grumbling councilmen and women too.  
  
As long as Yuri didn't think he had kill anyone else for the sake of protecting people when the law failed, grumbling about him was all those people would ever do.  
  
 _What a night for a sunrise_  
 _And we thought the dark would never end_  
 _Reaching out to try to find a friend_  
 _What a night for a sunrise_  
 _Sunrise_  
  
Of course, that meant Flynn had to stick to his side of things and push for reforms that would make the law into what it should be. The idea of failing terrified Flynn, but Yuri said he had faith in Flynn's ability to give Master Ioder the right advice and cajole the council into making the right decisions.  
  
Yuri's faith gave Flynn the strength to put the past behind them and build towards a future where children wouldn't feel the need to make promises like they had, or at least not on such a scale. They'd been such ambitious children, vowing to make the world better together.  
  
It was still hard to grasp the fact that they actually had that opportunity now.  
  
 _Soon we'll be lying in our beds_  
 _And new dreams will fill our heads_  
 _And the old ones will be ended_  
 _Hope we'll forget about this place_  
 _Let it go without a trace_  
 _Wipe the teardrops from our faces_  
 _Oh! What a year for a new year!_  
  
Standing, Yuri moved away from the piano bench and Flynn stood as well, hurrying to wrap his arms around Yuri's shoulders as they stood together for a moment in the doorway. With mistletoe hanging over their heads, they really had no choice but to kiss.  
  
"Want to watch the sunrise with me?" Yuri asked once they were outside.  
  
Sunrise was hours away. Flynn wondered what they'd to pass the time.

* * *

Yuri still had on that Santa hat.  
  
Flynn wondered where Yuri had found it. The hat didn't look new, not with the little worn patches on the red velvet or the matted bits in the white trim. Maybe Hanks gave it to him...  
  
A snowball hit Flynn's face, packed just lightly enough that it immediately crumbled on impact. Shaking off his distracted thoughts along with the snow, Flynn reached down to grab some snow of his own, cheerfully chasing after Yuri with the intent to shove some snow down the back of Yuri's coat.  
  
Letting out a shriek of delight, Yuri took off running down the street as Flynn followed, snowball held up menacingly in the air.

* * *

It had been years since they'd last made a snow fort together, but they certainly hadn't lost the knack for it. Flynn had, idly, mentioned wanting one and then Yuri started plotting it out, using sticks to mark out the fort's corners and then packing up snow into blocks that were just perfect to build walls with.  
  
Now they were curled up together, kissing in the snow, surrounded by their hard work.  
  
It was cold outside and Flynn's fingers were a little numb even with his gloves on, but heat coiled inside him.  
  
Then the first rays of light broke over the horizon, shining into their fort through Yuri's carefully crafted window. The two of them pulled apart and just watched as the sun began to creep up into the sky, Flynn's gloved hand reaching out to tangle his fingers with Yuri's.  
  
This was what they always waited for together: not midnight, but dawn. This was the first day of a new year.  
  
The possibilities were endless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "What a Year for a New Year" and "So This is Christmas (War is Over)" are my two favorite Christmas/New Years songs. Both songs fit well with this fandom, but "What a Year for a New Year" fit with the story best.
> 
> Also, I love the mental image of Flynn being so moved by the emotion in Yuri's singing and all the history between them that he cries a little.


	16. Enduring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Game AU: after Duke rescued Yuri at Zaude, Duke went to Zaphias in order to treat Yuri in secret, intending to keep Yuri safe from the Knights after having witnessed Sodia's attack from afar. But Yuri, trapped in a delirious haze from infection and fever, keeps asking for Flynn...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Check previous chapters; I'm sure I've already disclaimed Tales of Vesperia many times already...
> 
> Inspiration – various bits and bobs... so I'll leave it unspecified
> 
> The previous chapter saw this finally catching up with the original posting on FF.net. From here on out, both will be updated simultaneously.

The sky was beautiful that day.  
  
It was an odd thought to have. Not because the sky wasn't beautiful; it was gorgeous. It was that perfect shade of blue that almost matched Flynn's eyes and a fluffy little cloud was blocking out the sun just right so that it didn't burn in Yuri's eyes as he gazed upward.  
  
The water below reflected the light and seemed almost to dance. Not that Yuri was paying attention to that now, though he'd noticed earlier and wished Flynn was there to see it with him.  
  
It felt like a perfect day.  
  
Something nagged at the back of Yuri's mind. Something important.  
  
Why was there purple in the sky?

* * *

There was something Yuri wanted to tell Flynn.  
  
From the moment he woke up that morning, wrapped in Flynn's arms – and wasn't that the most strange and wonderful way to wake up? - he'd wanted to open his mouth and say the words. The words seemed to burn inside of him as Flynn kissed him good morning, as they took their time brushing their teeth, as they dressed, as they walked through the castle... and even now, as they stood on the steps together.  
  
But Yuri couldn't bear to say them yet. They'd already taken such a big step, just before what was shaping up to be an even bigger battle than what happened with the Heracles or the retaking of Zaphias. Yuri wasn't usually superstitious, but he felt as though they were already pushing their luck. What if saying those words aloud jinxed them? If one of them died in that place...  
  
"It looks like things here won't be settled for a while," Flynn told Yuri. "I had hopes that we'd have the Guild ships at our disposal."  
  
"I heard they've been having some issues." With the leadership of Altosk so uncertain, other guilds were trying to supplant Altosk in the Union's pecking order. It was rather irritating to learn that the Union was every bit as inefficient as the Empire, albeit in different ways. Don Whitehorse had been a great man, but he really should have delegated more responsibilities; Altosk, as well as the Union, wouldn't be floundering half so much if there had been some second-in-command poised to take over. "Losing the Don hit them all pretty hard. It was easy to see why they all respected him so much, but I don't think he'd be all that pleased with how they're handling his death."  
  
"There are a few guilds that are willing to cooperate; I think they realize that if Alexei were to take over the Empire, he'd be able to decimate the Union, but it'll still take some time before I can get my Knights to Zaude." Flynn laughed softly. "Looks like I'll be one step behind you this time."  
  
"No hard feelings, no matter which one of us gets to Alexei first, right?" Yuri asked, though what he meant was 'Alexei isn't the sort who surrenders; if I get there first and he dies, will you hate me?' He kept his tone nonchalant, but he got the feeling Flynn could see right through him.  
  
"The Council is trying to spin things so that the public will think that the castle was retaken through my efforts alone. It's not just this, either. The events with the Heracles... they know what really happened, they have my reports."  
  
"But, naturally, they don't want people to know they're indebted to a guild?" Yuri laughed. "I sort of figured that would happen, Flynn. You know I don't like that kind of attention."  
  
"Is that really what you want?"  
  
"Well... yes, but..." Yuri sighed and shook his head. "Let's talk about this after Zaude. There's a lot of things we need to talk about and we don't really have the time for any of it right now, do we?"  
  
"Take care, Yuri."

* * *

 _Flynn?_  
  
"Yuri, you need to relax."  
  
 _Flynn?!_  
  
"If you continue to struggle, you'll only aggravate your wound."  
  
 _Flynn?!_  
  
"I'm sorry. I don't know who this Flynn is. You must relax!"  
  
 _FLYNN!_

* * *

"So, what is an Adephagos, anyway?"  
  
Yuri blinked at Flynn for a moment, almost certain that someone else had been standing there in the split second between him turning around and Flynn speaking.  
  
But that was ridiculous.  
  
"I thought you were injured," Yuri responded, walking away from the edge of the ledge to where Flynn was standing, by the fallen, super-sized apatheia that had squashed Alexei.  
  
"I was, but a couple 'First Aids' later and I'm as good as new. Really, Yuri," Flynn's voice was edged with fondness, "you worry too much sometimes."  
  
"If I'd taken that hit, you'd have been just as worried," Yuri shot back with a laugh. Usually he was the one telling Flynn off for worrying and stressing himself beyond what was healthy, so Yuri supposed it was only fair Flynn got to tease back a little.  
  
Still... there was something odd about the whole thing. Shouldn't there be a hole in Flynn's armor? Or at least scorch marks... and that person he thought he'd seen. Who had that been?  
  
"Probably," Flynn agreed ruefully, running a hand through his hair and further ruffling his already messy looking blond locks, successfully distracting Yuri in the process. "So, the Adephagos? I'm assuming it's that thing," he pointed up at the purple and black and... oozing tentacle that stretched across the sky. "But what is it?"  
  
"It's the monster that nearly destroyed the ancient Garrios civilization," Yuri responded absently, looking back up at the monster. "Humans, Krityan, and Entelexeia worked together to beat it, but all they could manage was to wrap the world in a protective barrier..." he trailed off, his gaze fixed on the sky as an overwhelming sense of... flying? Falling? Whatever the feeling was, Yuri was lost in it until Flynn grabbed his hand.  
  
"We can beat this," Flynn told him confidently. "We'll do it together, like always."  
  
Yuri let Flynn guide him away from the edge and towards a hidden path that lead down into Zaude. But Yuri glanced back as they walked and he wondered... hadn't he walked away from that edge once already? When did he move back?  
  
At least it was a beautiful day.

* * *

 _Flynn?_  
  
"I still don't know who that is."  
  
 _Flynn... Flynn Scifo..._  
  
"The... new Commandant? Is he the one who injured you?"  
  
 _Is he alright?_  
  
"I was... unaware he was wounded."  
  
 _Is Flynn alright?!_  
  
"I'm sure he's already been healed."  
  
 _Flynn's okay..._  
  
"I have no doubt. You, however, have an infection and a fever. You must stop struggling against the pain."  
  
 _Flynn's... okay..._

* * *

"Are you sure you're okay?"  
  
"Yuri, I'm fine. Really." Flynn pressed a kiss against Yuri's mouth, sliding his arms around Yuri's shoulders and reducing the space between them at the same time.  
  
They were in Flynn's quarters on one of the Imperial ships. Yuri wasn't quite sure how they got there. The last clear memory he had was of Zaude... but Flynn's mouth was very distracting.  
  
It wasn't really important to know how they got to the ship anyway.  
  
Then Flynn backed off a bit and pulled his shirt off – hadn't he been wearing armor? - and placed Yuri's hand over a small, circular scar on his chest. "See, all healed up."  
  
Yuri felt himself flush slightly as his eyes roved over Flynn's half-naked body. He really didn't deserve to be the one Flynn felt this way about. But.. Flynn thought he deserved to be loved this way. That was enough reason for Yuri to set his insecurities aside. If Flynn thought him good enough then... maybe he really was good enough after all.  
  
Letting his fingers trail further down Flynn's chest, Yuri grinned at the sight of blue eyes dilating with want.  
  
"You'll stay with me, won't you Yuri?"  
  
A dull ache settled in Yuri's gut, and he winced even as he tilted his head to the side. "You mean when I'm not on guild jobs?"  
  
"I mean right now. You won't go somewhere I can't follow, right?"  
  
The ache turned into searing pain and he felt too hot.  
  
Someone was screaming.

* * *

"Yuri! Yuri, please, breathe slowly. You've got to do that for me."  
  
 _Flynn?_  
  
"Yes, Yuri, it's me."  
  
 _Hurt..._  
  
"I know it hurts, but you can't fight this pain, Yuri. That'll only make it worse..."  
  
"Commandant, Yuri has not been particularly lucid the last couple of times he regained consciousness. While I am certain he is aware of your presence, he is likely unaware of what you're actually saying."  
  
 _You're hurt..._  
  
"What?"  
  
"The last time he woke, he seemed quite convinced you'd been injured."  
  
"When I last saw Co... Alexei, he tried to kill Yuri with some sort of laser weapon. I pushed him out of the way and took the hit myself. My armor blunted the worst of the beam, but I was injured... he must be remembering that."  
  
 _Flynn?_  
  
"I'm fine, Yuri. The laser numbed my arm and burned me, but I've already recovered."  
  
 _Oh god... hurts..._  
  
"Yuri! Just concentrate on my voice, Yuri. Just... concentrate on me..."  
  
"I can give him more of the pain killers now, but... my supply is limited."  
  
 _Flynn!_  
  
"Let me worry about finding more if you run out."  
  
 _Flynn..._

* * *

"Do you remember that purple shirt you used to wear when we were kids?"  
  
"Well, that came out of nowhere," Yuri drawled, snuggling into Flynn's warmth. It was certainly an odd topic, given that neither of them were wearing any clothes at the moment.  
  
"I just... always thought that color looked good on you." Flynn pressed a kiss against Yuri's forehead. "I remember the other kids laughed and said purple was a girly color."  
  
"Which was stupid. If it were lavender, then they'd have had a point, but it was really dark. I loved that color the moment you showed it to me." Yuri grinned at the memory of little Flynn holding out the shirt and saying that he thought Yuri might like it. They'd only known each other for a few days at that point and Finath had taken them shopping so that Yuri could get new clothes to replace the rags he'd worn out on the streets.  
  
Flynn had looked so shy that day and Yuri had hoped to see Flynn smile. Flynn had the nicest smile Yuri had ever seen... which was as true now as it was then.  
  
"I think I'd do just about anything to see that smile," Yuri mumbled sleepily.  
  
"I'm glad you like it so much." Flynn began to card his fingers through Yuri's hair. "I'm also really glad you stayed."  
  
"Huh?" Already, Yuri was nodding off again.  
  
"Don't go where I can't follow."  
  
"Promise..."

* * *

"I'm going to hold you to that, you know."  
  
"I doubt he'll appreciate that when he is well again."  
  
"Yeah, well, he'll get over it. Thank you."  
  
"What for?"  
  
"Everything you're doing for Yuri."  
  
"..."

* * *

Flynn stopped Yuri on the way to the guest room he'd been assigned. "Oh, good, you're still awake. I... was worried you'd already gone to sleep."  
  
"Tomorrow's a big day," Yuri replied. "I wanted to check on everyone else first."  
  
"How are they doing?"  
  
Yuri grinned and related how Rita was fixing Estelle's problems, Karol was fixing the Lower Quarter's problems (under Repede's watchful eye), Judy was fixing their transportation problems... and Raven was self-castigating in the otherwise empty cell-block in the dungeon.  
  
"He's also Captain Schwann." Flynn sounded rather displeased about Raven's dual life. Yuri understood the sentiment, but...  
  
"Yeah. He's... been pretty screwed up by Alexei. He makes it hard to see through his idiot routine, but its obvious he's pretty depressed under it all. I... I'm kind of worried that part of him really wanted to die. He's got a lot to live for and he's starting to see that now but, for his sake, it'd be best to just let 'Captain Schwann' be dead and let Raven live his life as he wants." Yuri didn't know if that was even an option at the moment, though he sincerely hoped it was. Raven deserved to have a little peace.  
  
"Lady Estellise conveyed the same sentiment earlier. She said he's suffered enough." Flynn paused and then added, "I agree with you two. Whatever crimes he may have committed in Alexei's service, there's no evidence of them and, as long as there's no evidence, there's no reason to cause him further trouble. Besides, Lady Estellise also said that everyone in the guild had already punished him, including her."  
  
"She slapped him," Yuri confirmed with a grin.  
  
"I wish I could have seen that," Flynn said with a laugh, grinning even more brightly when Yuri seconded the sentiment.  
  
"So, what did you want to see me for?" Yuri asked as their laughter tapered off.  
  
Flynn's face grew flushed and he glanced away nervously. "Would you come back to my room with me? There's... there's something I want to tell you, but not out here. It's private and I'd rather not say it where someone else might overhear."  
  
Yuri nodded in curiosity. "Of course."

* * *

"Yuri? I think he's waking up."  
  
"His infection has begun to clear. He might be more lucid this time."  
  
"Flynn...?" Yuri blinked and tried to focus. He could hear Flynn there and... Duke?  
  
"Hey, Yuri." There was a blond blur leaning over him. "How do you feel?"  
  
"Hurts..." Yuri murmured. There was a painful ache in his gut, though it felt muted somehow... as if it ought to be much worse.  
  
"I know..." Fingers brushed lightly against the side of Yuri's face. "Do you remember what happened?"  
  
"It should have been a beautiful day," Yuri muttered, closing his eyes as the world faded away again. "Glad you're here."

* * *

The sky was beautiful.  
  
"Have you ever wondered what would have happened that day if you hadn't seen me?"  
  
"What day?" Yuri asked, turning to face Flynn. For a moment, he thought he saw someone else standing in Flynn's place. But it was just Flynn, so Yuri turned back, gazing up at the sky. Zaude was an oddly peaceful place, now that Alexei had been squashed.  
  
"The day we met," Flynn replied, walking up to stand by Yuri and sliding his hand against Yuri's in order to clasp them together. "Have you ever thought about what might have happened if you hadn't seen me?"  
  
"We'd have met eventually," Yuri said, shrugging. "We lived in the same part of the Lower Quarter. We were bound to meet sometime. What matters is that we did."  
  
"I guess that's what I'm really asking. What would have happened if we hadn't met at all?"  
  
"I'd be in jail and you'd have a stick up your ass," Yuri responded with a teasing smirk.  
  
Flynn huffed and lightly bumped Yuri's shoulder with his own. "I'd be dead. You saved my life a few times, Yuri."  
  
"Most of the worst trouble you got into as a kid was because of me, though." Yuri looked away, thoughtfully. "So your life would have unfolded differently. Maybe the only reason you needed any saving was because I was there in the first place. Maybe... you'd have been better off without me."  
  
Without any hesitation, Flynn reached over and flicked Yuri between the eyes. "You're an idiot, Yuri. Our lives are more interesting together. But this injury of yours has made me wonder what life would be like without you and... it scares me. A life without you in it would be like a life without color or..."  
  
"You're getting ridiculous," Yuri interrupted, blushing and ducking his head. "I can't imagine life without you. I guess I always figured I'd die first and you'd mourn, but move on without me. You've always been the stronger of the two of us. Besides, I've only got a few scrapes and bruises. You were injured worse than I was."  
  
"I'm not as strong as you think I am... or maybe it's just that all that strength you think is mine is really something I only have because I'm with you."  
  
Not sure how to respond, Yuri changed the subject. "I wanted to tell you something the morning I left for this place. Something important. Was that this morning? It seems so far away..."  
  
"Don't think to hard on that right now, Yuri," Flynn interrupted. "You're not ready to go back yet. Just let me take care of you for a little while longer, okay?" He squeezed Yuri's hand in askance.  
  
So Yuri nodded and squeezed Flynn's hand in return.  
  
They were in Flynn's room back at the castle. Yuri blinked and looked around uncertainly. Hadn't they just been somewhere else? Somewhere outside?  
  
No... no, they'd just come in from the hallway, after Flynn had found him on the way to the guestroom. Why had he thought...?  
  
"Yuri..." Flynn shut the door, his face heating.  
  
"What is it?" Yuri wandered over to the bed and sat down. When Flynn didn't say anything, Yuri sighed. "You said you wanted to tell me something, so... what is it?"  
  
"I... this isn't easy to say... I... that is... um..." Flynn's face was so flushed that even the tips of his ears were tinted pink.  
  
Yuri grinned, enjoying the view. Then he let his grin drop away for a more serious expression. "If you're worried about what I'm going to do after Zaude, you don't have to worry about me running off to be a fugitive or hurting any of your Knights trying to escape. I'll turn myself over to you without a fuss."  
  
"You... what?" Flynn shook his head. "That's not what I want to talk about, but... well, Master Ioder has issued a provisional pardon for you. You can either join the Knights or help put an end to Alexei's insurrection. It's pretty obvious, though, what path you'd prefer."  
  
"Just like that, I'm clear for killing Ragou and causing Cumore's death? It shouldn't be that easy..." Yuri looked away, uncomfortable.  
  
"For services rendered to the Empire... helping stop the Heracles, rescuing Lady Estellise, and aiding in Alexei's defeat at Zaude? None of that's been easy and I don't doubt the part that hasn't even been done yet will be even more difficult." Flynn walked over and slumped down next to Yuri. He stared morosely at his armor hanging in the corner for a long moment. "Fuck. I can't believe I'm the Acting Commandant. How did this happen?"  
  
"Isn't that what we always wanted? For one of us to rise high enough in the Knights that we could affect real change? Also... wow. I don't think I've heard you say something as strong as 'fuck' since before we joined the Knights." Yuri bumped shoulders with Flynn. "I guess it's all pretty overwhelming, huh?"  
  
"Yeah. Very overwhelming." Flynn bumped Yuri's shoulder back. "This is what we wanted, but not so soon and under these circumstances. I barely have any experience as a Captain. I don't know how I'll handle being Commandant instead."  
  
"I have faith in you, Flynn. You thrive under pressure... we both do."  
  
Nodding, Flynn leaned against Yuri for a long moment. "That's not what I wanted to talk to you about either."  
  
"Then what do you want to talk about?" Yuri asked, giving Flynn a rather concerned look. "You're starting to worry me a little here."  
  
"Yuri, I..." Flynn pulled away and, for a moment, they just sat there staring at each other. Yuri waited quietly for Flynn to put together the words he wanted to say while Flynn... seemed almost entranced. "Oh, screw it," Flynn mumbled, bridging the gap between them with a kiss.  
  
While Yuri's brain was insistently telling him all the reasons this was a terrible, bad, horrible idea, his arms seemed to think differently, as they wrapped around Flynn's waist. His mouth seemed to agree with his arms, since he was kissing back as enthusiastically as possible.  
  
It was the need for air that finally drew them apart.  
  
"This is a terrible idea," Yuri muttered.  
  
"If you don't want..." Flynn started to say, his voice breathless and depressed as he started to pull away.  
  
"Oh, I want," Yuri assured Flynn, kissing him lightly. "I'm just saying," he interrupted himself by planting another kiss, "that this could be very bad," he sucked lightly on Flynn's lower lip, "for your career." He pulled back. "Dating a murderer, even a pardoned one, won't win you any friends on the council. Especially with me being a guildsman now."  
  
"We'll find a way to make things work. I don't know..." Flynn sighed and tightened his hold on Yuri's shirt. "Stupid time for me to decide to be selfish, isn't it?"  
  
"Maybe," Yuri shrugged. "Or..." a thought he wasn't sure he liked occurred to him.  
  
"Or, what?"  
  
"Something for me to think on, okay?" Yuri lay back on the bed, pulling Flynn on top of him. "Let's get back to the kissing. I was enjoying that."  
  
"Me too."

* * *

"Flynn?"  
  
"He's sleeping in the room next door. Your friend has rather exhausted himself between his duties and fretting over your condition." Duke paused, uncertainly. "How do you feel?"  
  
"I ache all over," Yuri rasped. "Thirsty."  
  
Duke brought over a cup. "You can have a few of these. Carefully."  
  
Yuri groaned as the ache spiked into real pain for a moment before tapering off as he lay back down, ice chips in his mouth. Once they were melted and swallowed, Yuri asked, "how long since Zaude?"  
  
"Not quite a week. You've spent the last several days drifting in and out of consciousness, though I doubt you remember much of it."  
  
"I remember Flynn was worried."  
  
"You are quite... dear to him."  
  
Yuri smiled and let his eyes drift closed. Flynn was pretty dear to him too, after all. "I remember falling from Zaude..."  
  
"Yes. There was a Knight up there with you, a Lieutenant Sodia. She stabbed you, causing you to go into shock and fall from the platform."  
  
"I remember that," Yuri murmured sleepily. "I didn't think she hated me that much..."

* * *

They were sitting together just outside of Zaphias. There was this little hill that they would always go to as children, looking up at the sky and making up stories about the stars they saw there.  
  
"You're going to be okay, Yuri." Flynn ran his fingers through Yuri's hair.  
  
Yuri let out a soft laugh and lay back, tugging Flynn down with him. "I have you with me. How could I be anything but okay?"  
  
"And you call me a sap," Flynn teased, snuggling against Yuri's shoulder. "Are you really going to do it?"  
  
"I... I hate attention, you know that."  
  
"That's why I'm asking." Flynn kissed Yuri's cheek. "If you don't want to, we can always find another way."  
  
"No. This isn't just about you, Flynn. It's about the Empire and the Guilds and... building trust between the two. The Empire needs a hero and... so do the Guilds. If those two heroes are capable of cooperating with one another..."  
  
"We do a lot more than cooperating," Flynn said, planting another kiss on Yuri's collar. "Do you think they'll accept that too?"  
  
"I think that it's the best we can do," Yuri wrapped his arms around Flynn's waist. "We won't get to see each other near enough as it is. If we had to keep what we are to one another secret... I just don't think we could.  
  
"Being with you is worth putting up with a little unwanted attention from others."  
  
"You should tell him that when you wake up," Flynn said.  
  
Frowning, Yuri sat up sharply. "Wake up? But, Flynn..."  
  
"You're going to be fine," Flynn said, his voice insistent. "You don't need to stay here anymore. So... wake up, sleepyhead. Tell him how you feel."  
  
"I..."

* * *

Sitting up awkwardly, Yuri looked around the empty room. A healer must have been in earlier, since his wound didn't hurt as much as it had the last time he woke up.  
  
There was a book on the floor, propped up against the bed, and Yuri reached for it, wincing as he bent over a bit too much. But he grabbed it and sat back, fluffing up his pillows and flipping through the pages.  
  
It was about the Children of the Full Moon and how they'd sacrificed their lives to create the apatheia that powered Zaude. It worked in tandem with the apatheia left behind by the Entelexeia Vesperia. Now, a thousand years later, their sacrifice was slowly being undone. All Yuri had to do was glance out the window to see the Adephagos' tentacle waving about in the distance.  
  
There had to be a way...  
  
The door snicked softly as it opened. Yuri looked up at Flynn and smiled, his heart hammering away in his chest. "Hey, you look exhausted."  
  
"Yuri," Flynn breathed his name out, brightening with relief and joy. He was across the room in seconds. "I've missed your smile," he whispered, wrapping his arms around Yuri's shoulders and pressing their foreheads together.  
  
There were a lot of things Yuri wanted to talk to Flynn about. Like his decision to have his guild take credit for their part in foiling Alexei's coup or what the latest status on the Adephagos problem was. He wanted to know how his guild was doing, how Estelle was coping, if Rita had been lost under a sea of books, and what path Raven had chosen to follow: guilds or knights.  
  
But, really, there was only one thing Yuri needed to say to Flynn and that took precedence. "I love you, Flynn."  
  
Stunned, but unhesitating, Flynn replied, "I love you too."  
  
Everything else could wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of this is, obviously, taking place in Yuri's head. There are the flashbacks to before Zaude, which are real. There's what's actually going on, which Yuri's only sort of aware of for the most part. Finally, there's the 'dream' Flynn, who is basically Yuri's subconscious and is influenced by what's going on around Yuri, particularly what he hears while he's out. So some of what 'dream' Flynn is saying is what the real Flynn is saying, filtered somewhat to fit in with what Yuri's experiencing in the dream.


	17. Vulnerabilities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A companion piece to the earlier sexy armor story. :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Does this really need to be repeated again at this point? I'm sure everyone realizes that I'm not the owner of these characters or anything else that originates within the game Tales of Vesperia.
> 
> Outfit – Yuri's sexy armor again...

Flynn did not often consider the downsides to armor.  
  
It was heavy, but it protected him in battle and he was strong enough that, sometimes, he did actually forget he was wearing heavy metal practically all the time. He looked good in it, dashing even, not that he'd ever admit to thinking that sort of thing. It wasn't particularly cumbersome, either, so he could sit and stand in it without any issues. The design also made it easy to take the arm guards off and on, so he usually left those beside his desk when he had paperwork.  
  
He was also proficient in both putting it on and taking it off quickly. So when Yuri would show up in his window at night, Flynn was able to strip rather fast. Yuri always seemed to enjoy the show, at any rate.  
  
All in all, armor wasn't usually a problem for Flynn at all. At least, not when Flynn was the one wearing the armor.  
  
When it was Yuri dressed in armor, however... things got... tricky.  
  
For one thing, Yuri didn't often wear his armor. So Yuri had a difficult time putting it on and taking it off on his own. Usually, when he had to wear it, he'd show up at Flynn's room still in his normal outfit, the armor in a bag over his shoulder, and he'd conscript Flynn into helping him change. In other words, Yuri would kick Flynn out of his own bedroom until he was ready for Flynn to come back in and help with that last bits.  
  
When Flynn pointed out that Yuri did spend three months in the Knights and should be able to put on the armor all on his own, Yuri just responded that this armor was more complicated with buckles he couldn't reach. It wasn't really an excuse, either; there were a few buckles on the back that would be awkward for him to clasp on his own.  
  
After whatever Yuri needed to wear the armor for would end, Yuri would follow Flynn back up to his room and then Flynn would get out of his armor first, stripping down to the light cotton clothes he wore beneath the otherwise unforgiving metal. Then he'd help Yuri out. Only...  
  
Only Flynn didn't stop with just taking off Yuri's armor. He'd take off Yuri's shirt, pressing kisses to Yuri's mouth and neck and chest, pausing to pay particular attention to stiffened nipples. He'd help Yuri out of his pants, licking and trailing kisses up and down Yuri's thighs...  
  
Somewhere along the way, Flynn would lose the rest of his clothing too. Yuri shifting back and forth between teasingly light touches and heated strokes using his hands and mouth...  
  
This was probably why Yuri wouldn't let Flynn be in the room for the majority of his getting dressed. If Flynn were allowed in, either the armor would never stay on or... well... it could be very uncomfortable, getting hard while in a metal uniform.  
  
Of course, it wasn't just the taking on and taking off parts of the armor that was tricky. There was Yuri actually wearing the armor that was impossibly difficult.  
  
Yuri was always beautiful. Always. Even when Yuri couldn't see it in himself, he was still beautiful. Certainly, Yuri couldn't see himself the way Flynn did – noble, sarcastic, kind, annoying, determined, stubborn, frustrating, endearing, teasing, hot-headed, breath-taking... beautiful.  
  
The armor accentuated Yuri's effeminate physical traits, however. So when Yuri wore the armor, he wasn't just beautiful. He was gorgeous.  
  
With his hair up, Yuri looked a little younger and a little more innocent. The uncertain, uncomfortable demeanor that came over him in that outfit probably had a lot to do with the innocent part. Yuri understood, after all, that an outfit could change how a person was perceived. He just didn't seem to understand that the way he was perceived when he wore that armor wasn't a lie.  
  
Vulnerability was a rare thing in Yuri. He didn't have many weaknesses and seeing Yuri so obviously out of his element brought out Flynn's protective side more than ever. That the armor seemed to accentuate Yuri's vulnerabilities instead of cover them was just the sort of paradox that seemed to suit the troublesome guildsman.  
  
Still, Yuri seemed to be growing more comfortable in the armor. He'd probably never be as at ease in it as Flynn was in his own, but maybe that was for the best. They each had their own niches and, with all the things Yuri could beat Flynn at now, it was nice to know he still had the upper hand sometimes.


	18. The Year of Excalibur

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Funamation has the Soul Eater rights and Bandai Namco owns Tales of Vesperia.
> 
> Inspired By – School uniforms and Excalibur (admittedly, the uniform part is not obvious... it's more of a 'hey, they have school uniforms and DWMA is a school' thought process than anything truly meaningful)
> 
> This will probably make more sense if you've watched the Soul Eater anime, or read the manga, but the most important thing to know is that Weapons are people who can transform into magical weapons and Meisters are people whose souls are capable of resonating with Weapon souls and thus wielding the full power of the Weapon against evil.

Senior year started off about as normal as DWMA – the Deathscythe Weapon and Meister Academy – ever got. Yuri managed to scrape by, just above the cut-off line for remedial lessons, while Flynn nagged at him to study more. They also went out once or twice a month to chase down someone who aspired to walk the path of the Kishin and kill the heretic before he, or she, could consume too many innocent souls. But, really, that was par for the course at DWMA. They were being graded, after all, on their ability to work together as Weapon and Meister.  
  
The year's weirdness actually began the third weekend into the first semester, though Yuri wouldn't really realize that until further down the line. As it was, their usual group had gathered together in the library at Rita and Estelle's insistence. The 'usual group' was Yuri, Flynn, Rita, and Estelle, of course, along with Karol, Nan, Sodia, and Witcher. Lloyd, Zelos, Colette, and Genus had joined them for the afternoon too, making for a louder than advised group for a library. But Professors Judy and Raven were on duty, so they weren't likely to be disciplined.  
  
That was when Karol found the book: Excalibur.  
  
"Why don't we go look for it?" Karol enthused, having read a few sections aloud and gotten way too worked up over the idea of being the Meister who wielded the Holy Sword.  
  
Nan, an axe Weapon and Karol's partner, didn't look particularly excited by the idea. "Swords are boring and besides, if the Holy Sword was alive during King Arthur's time, then he'd already be dead by now. So if you're going to go grave-hunting you can just count me out."  
  
"But the book says he's immortal."  
  
"Books say whatever their authors want them too, idiot. Doesn't necessarily make it true." She huffed and stalked off.  
  
Karol sighed and turned his pleading gaze on Rita and Estelle. The two girls shook their heads.  
  
"I already have a Weapon I work well with. Besides, the whole acceptance of Witches into DWMA is still a pretty new thing. A Weapon that old probably still has a lot of hangups and prejudices against my kind," Rita reminded him.  
  
"Sorry, Karol, but I'm with Rita on this," Estelle added. "If you bring him back, I'll meet him if he doesn't have any hangups about my partner."  
  
"I'll go with you. This kind of adventure sounds like fun," Lloyd spoke up, grinning at his cousin.  
  
Punching the air enthusiastically, Karol grinned. "Yeah!"  
  
"I'll go too," Genus added. "Someone has to keep you two idiots from getting yourselves killed."  
  
"I think I'll sit this one out," Zelos said, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet up on the table. "Too much effort for me."  
  
Colette gave Zelos a surprisingly stern look, causing the redhead to look sheepish as he put his feet back on the ground. Then, turning back into her normal, carefree self, Colette declared, "I want to come too. If Zelos and I are going to be the best swords possible for Lloyd, then at least one of us should try to meet the Holy Sword and take some notes." She gave Zelos a pointed, innocent stare.  
  
"Oh, fine," he huffed, "I'll tag along too. Sheesh. You're secretly worse than Sheena. Why won't anyone believe me on that?"  
  
"It wouldn't be a secret if everyone else knew," Yuri admonished with a smirk. "I'm out."  
  
"We're supposed to take a mission tonight," Flynn agreed, looking relieved to have an excuse not to go. "Let us know what you find."  
  
Sodia ducked her head when she heard that Yuri and Flynn had a mission. She was a Weapon without an official Meister, but she'd worked with Flynn the few times Yuri had been out sick. Flynn was oblivious to her obsessive little crush; Yuri, however, was well aware that she was seething over the duo's continued pairing.  
  
As it stood, Sodia was currently working with Witcher, with whom she could not achieve resonance. In fact, Sodia had never achieved soul resonances with anyone, even Flynn. But she'd made it clear to Yuri on quite a few occasions that she thought she could achieve it with Flynn... if only Yuri would stop getting in her way.  
  
While Yuri had reported her behavior to the professors, he'd kept quiet about it to Flynn. Right now she hadn't done anything worth troubling him over and if she really went off the deep end it would, theoretically, show up in her soul's wavelength and one of the professors who could see wavelengths would notice.  
  
Yuri wasn't the only one who'd noticed the problem with Sodia. Witcher clearly knew something was wrong too, as he excused himself and Sodia to go look for a book they needed for a research project.  
  
"Well, no time like the present," Karol declared. "Let's go find Excalibur!" He hurried off, his fellow adventurers in tow.  
  
After Karol's exclamation, Yuri happened to glance over at Raven and Judy just in time to see their faces scrunch up into expressions of disgust before smoothing back over. Curious, Yuri got up and wandered over to them and, affecting an air of idle disinterest, pretended to browse through the books behind the professors. Once directly behind them, he said, loudly, "Excalibur!"  
  
The two jumped and shuddered, the expressions of disgust briefly returning.  
  
"So, what's wrong with the Holy Sword?" Yuri asked, smirking at them.  
  
Judy laughed, applauding Yuri's subterfuge. Raven, however, huffed in irritation, answering with "personality conflicts" and refusing to be more specific.  
  
Wandering back to the others, Yuri seated himself beside Flynn again, answering the blond's wondering look with an impish smile.  
  
Personality conflicts... huh...

* * *

After leaving with Flynn on their mission, Yuri didn't give the thing with Excalibur much more thought. He spent most of that night in Scythe form, lending his power to his best friend and enjoying the way their souls felt in resonance when Flynn used the Hunter attack. (It used to be called Witch Hunter but, since the treaty with the Witches, obviously that name had become politically incorrect.)  
  
The night ended well, with another Kishin soul collected for the Academy to dispose of.  
  
The next morning, the intrepid Excalibur explorers returned. They did not have Excalibur with them and, when questioned, all of them made the exact same disgusted expression that Professors Raven and Judy had made.  
  
Somehow, Yuri wasn't surprised.  
  
If that incident had been the only mention of Excalibur made all year, Yuri might have forgotten it entirely. But it wasn't.  
  
Asbel and his brother, Hubert, went after the sword and came back disgusted.  
  
Milla, Jude, and Alvin went after the sword. They came back with Alvin telling tales about Jude having to prevent Milla from committing homicide against a very weird sounding creature that may, or may not, have been the Excalibur of legend. Just saying the name Excalibur around Milla was enough to make the already high-strung swordswoman get twitchy.  
  
Cless, Chester, and Arche tried their luck. Arche came back in bow form and tried to get Chester to use her to shoot anyone who so much as whispered the name Excalibur on campus.  
  
Stahn and Rutee were the next to give it a try. From the way Stahn told things, Rutee had tried to melt Excalibur down to sell the metals he was made from. To hear Rutee tell things, Stahn had tried to strangle Excalibur while the fairies living in the cavern cheered him on.  
  
Luke wanted to go, but Asch and Guy talked him out of it. Tear, Anise, and Natalia, however, did go to Excalibur's cave and refused to speak of it afterwards.  
  
No one, however, was expecting anyone to actually bring Excalibur back with them, much less the quiet, introverted Ruca Milda.

* * *

"Fool!"  
  
Yuri peered around the corner and, sure enough, there was Excalibur, just like Estelle had told him. The... anthropomorphic white anteater (seriously, what was that thing?) was wandering around beside Ruca, strutting his stuff like he was the most awesome being to ever live.  
  
Well... no time like the present to find out why everyone looked so horribly disgusted with this guy.  
  
As he rounded the corner, Yuri was immediately noticed by Excalibur.  
  
"You! Do you want to hear the legend of me? Do you want to hear a heroic tale?" Excalibur leaned forward, expressionless, on his cane. His attention was clearly intent upon Yuri, however, and he didn't seem to blink at all.  
  
"Not really," Yuri replied, placidly. He had a feeling Excalibur would start the tale anyway.  
  
Excalibur didn't disappoint. "Fool! This is the greatest tale you will ever learn. The stories of me shall enrich your life in ways you cannot even imagine."  
  
"So, what your saying is that I should show up for your five-hour story time?" Yuri smirked as Excalibur clearly hesitated. "Yeah, I heard about that. If you tell your story now, then what reason will I have to show up later?"  
  
"I... I am about to begin that in the lecture hall." Excalibur brandished his cane at the doorway beside him. "You most certainly should attend. For my legend dates back to the twelfth century... and even five hours isn't truly long enough." He turned sharply and walked into the lecture hall.  
  
Still curious – Excalibur was self-important and pretentious, but didn't seem to rate the all consuming disgust Yuri had witnessed – Yuri followed him inside.  
  
There were other students inside and over the course of five hours, all of them left... save Yuri and Ruca. While Ruca didn't seem to be paying any attention, Yuri did. Excalibur's story was winding and nonsensical, constantly jumping to whatever topic entered the creature's mind at any given time.  
  
It was freaking hilarious.  
  
Still laughing to himself as he left the lecture hall, Yuri had the impression that he was going to be the only person who really enjoyed Excalibur's visit to the school.

* * *

Yuri was not wrong.  
  
Flynn could not stand Excalibur, who would always start singing the 'Excalibur Song' whenever Flynn walked into the same room as the Holy Sword. Colette, along with Mint and Estelle, tried to stage an intervention for Ruca to save him from his misguided pairing with Excalibur. Milla kept trying increasingly ridiculous methods to kill Excalibur that all ended with the anteater dodging her and then tripping her into walls with his cane.  
  
Some good did come of Excalibur's presence, though. Through their mutual loathing of Excalibur, Sophie and Lambda finally buried the hatchet between them as they conspired to convince Ruca stop pairing with Excalibur. Professor Raine could be successfully chased out of the kitchen by anyone capable of a passable impersonation of Excalibur's "Fool!"; her brother, after a few days of practice, was the worst offender.  
  
Ruca, however, seemed to be having a great time finally getting to be on top of all his classes and being able to work with a Weapon who resonated well with him. Since he noticed that Yuri didn't seem to resent him for bringing back Excalibur the way others did, Ruca ended up confiding in the raven-haired teen that he didn't intend to keep Excalibur all year. Just long enough to enjoy the feeling of success before Excalibur managed to stamp on even his last nerve.  
  
All in all, Yuri got the impression that Excalibur's true mission in life was to piss off everyone for no other reason than that he enjoyed inspiring loathing in people for giggles. While even Yuri could find him irritating at times, he appreciated Excalibur's dedication to trouble-making. The sheer amount of shamelessness required was kind of awe-inspiring.  
  
Also... Yuri might have taken to singing the 'Excalibur Song' whenever Flynn got a little to preachy about getting their homework done on nights when it really would not hurt for them to go have a little fun. According to Flynn, Yuri sounded eerily just like Excalibur when he sang the song. Flynn's face would start twitching each time and he'd give in just to make Yuri shut up.  
  
Eventually the furor over Excalibur began to die down and even Milla's assassination attempts tapered off to once or twice a week. Yuri figured that it wouldn't be long until Excalibur did something to purposefully piss of Ruca and go home.  
  
Except... Excalibur seemed to have focused on Sodia. He wasn't actively antagonizing the girl. Instead, he was hanging around just outside of her notice. Sodia, in turn, was always following Flynn, and thus also Yuri, around like a lost puppy. So it was hard, for Yuri at least, not to notice her bizarre anteater tail.  
  
Watching Excalibur actually succeed at being subtle was worrying and so Yuri also began to regard Sodia carefully. Perhaps there was something he was missing...

* * *

Despite being a sniffly, sneezing, stuffy-headed wreck, Yuri still noticed that something was wrong when his roommate got back from school that afternoon. It was through the haze of a not-quite fever and cold symptoms, but Yuri always noticed when something was wrong with Flynn.  
  
It was an instinct at this point.  
  
"Bad day?" Yuri asked. "Did Excalibur start serenading you again?"  
  
"Excalibur was actually quiet in class today," Flynn muttered, dropping onto the couch beside Yuri heavily and reaching over to check the sick teen's temperature with the back of his hand.  
  
Yuri tried not to be obvious about leaning into Flynn's touch, but he was too fuzzy to care if he failed.  
  
"We were supposed to be doing some resonance practice today and I decided to sit out since you weren't there. No real purpose in trying to practice with someone else when you're my partner." Flynn grinned over at Yuri for a moment, the words and expression making Yuri's heart thud faster. At least, he assumed that was because of Flynn and not another side-affect of the cold medicine.  
  
Then the smile slid off of Flynn's face and he looked away. "Sodia got all weird about it. I know she and I have partnered a few times in the past when you were sick, but not for things like resonance practice. Just regular stuff, like sensing other people's wavelengths. Her insistence on trying to partner with me today was kind of embarrassing, really. Witcher looked pretty humiliated that she was trying so hard to get out of working with him."  
  
"Wha-" Yuri interrupted himself with a yawn and had to try again. "What did Professor Raven do?"  
  
"He sent her to go talk to a counselor and had Witcher sit out with me while everyone else practiced. I tried to apologize to Witcher for what happened, but he said I wasn't responsible for Sodia's hangups."  
  
"You're not," Yuri agreed, snuggling against Flynn's shoulder. "I have a secret," he added. "I never liked it when you'd team up with her when I'm sick. Made me jealous. You're my Meister." Oh, yeah, this was definitely the cold medicine fueling him now.  
  
"Sorry," Flynn murmured, ruffling Yuri's hair in clear amusement. "But, as evidenced by today, I won't do that any more. You're my Weapon, accept no substitutes."  
  
"Better not..."

* * *

Every year around Yuletide, there was a formal dance at the school. Yuri always wanted to ask Flynn, but generally watched quietly with the feeling of knives stabbing him in the chest while Flynn would ask whatever pretty girl he was crushing on this year.  
  
So it completely blew him away when, the very morning that the dance was announced, Flynn turned to Yuri instead of some girl and, stammering slightly, asked Yuri to the dance.  
  
"Could you repeat that?" Yuri asked dazedly, certain he'd misheard. Maybe Flynn wanted to ask Estelle?  
  
"What I'm trying to say, Yuri, is that I like you in a... non-platonic manner... and I'd like you to go to the dance with me," Flynn was blushing beet red by this point.  
  
"Non-platonic? This is how you're choosing to admit your feelings for me? There go any illusions I had about your skill for romance," Yuri teased, grinning impishly.  
  
"Yuri..." Flynn let out a frustrated sigh. "Could you just answer me?"  
  
"Yes." The word shot out of Yuri's mouth without a thought.  
  
"Yes you could answer me or yes you'll go to the dance with me?"  
  
"Yes, I'll go to the dance with you." Yuri's heart was thudding pretty hard in his chest because, lack of romance aside, he'd been practically dreaming of this moment for a while now. Admittedly, he'd given Flynn way too much credit in the 'being suave' department, but somehow this was better.  
  
Grinning, Flynn leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss against Yuri's lips and, wow, even that felt really, really nice. Yuri just had to lean in for another.  
  
Naturally, that was when Sodia flipped out.  
  
Yuri felt someone – Sodia – grab his hair to yank him backwards. He managed, if only just, to avoid her other hand, which had morphed into a sword blade and was aiming at his gut while she screamed incoherently about Yuri having stolen everything that belonged to her... namely, Flynn.  
  
Flynn immediately launched himself into the fray, trying to hold Sodia off and attempting to rationalize with her. She was not in the mood to be rational about anything, so Flynn's pleas that she not kill Yuri fell on deaf ears.  
  
While everyone was paying attention to Sodia's apparent psychotic break and attempts to kill the hypotenuse, Excalibur gave the Professors a particularly unimpressed look. "I called it," he told them, and then waddled forward to thunk the back of Sodia's head very hard with his cane. She collapsed, her left hand reverting to normal and her right relinquishing its grip on Yuri's hair.  
  
"You!" Excalibur pointed his cane at Yuri. "You have a singularly wonderful taste in music. Never forget my song." His cane moved to point at Flynn. "You! You need to work on your situational observational skills. Also, your partner has a singularly wonderful taste in music. Treasure him always." Glancing down at Sodia, he muttered dismissively, "fool!"  
  
Turning to Ruca expectantly, Excalibur seemed to be waiting for something.  
  
"Is that all you need to do here?" Ruca asked, a weird sort of half smile on his face. Receiving a nod, Ruca nodded back. "Your rules suck."  
  
"Fool! Our association is ended. My legend dates back to the 12th Century and is thus quite old. The 12th Century was a long time ago. You shall come to regret not having my wealth of knowledge and legendary status to call upon."  
  
"Yet, somehow, I think I'll survive," Ruca replied dryly.  
  
"Hey, Excalibur," Yuri called, edging away from Sodia's unconscious body while Flynn tried to surreptitiously fuss over him. "Thanks."  
  
"As I said, you have a singularly wonderful taste in music. It would be a waste to let you be stabbed to death so long as you remember my song." Excalibur then marched out of the cafeteria, breezing by the nurse as she rushed in to collect Sodia.  
  
"So..." Yuri leaned against Flynn, "that just happened. Weird... she's not going to be let back into the same class as me, right?"  
  
"Right," Raven agreed hastily, eagerly helping put Sodia on the stretcher so that they could get her out of there and, hopefully, restore order quickly.  
  
"Huh..." Flynn frowned and turned thoughtfully to Yuri. "Illusions of my romantic abilities? Does that mean you were imagining me being romantic to you?"  
  
This time Yuri was the one stammering.

* * *

In January, a CD arrived in the mail for Yuri. There were somewhere around twenty different tracks on it and each one was a variation on the 'Excalibur Song'... which Yuri totally did not proceed to play loudly on his stereo so that Flynn would feel inclined to stop studying and maybe go get dinner with Yuri at a nice restaurant... because Yuri wouldn't abuse a gift like that... or, yeah, he most definitely would, and did.  
  
"Excalibur! Excalibur! From the United K! I'm looking for heaven! I'm going to California!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't know who the English voice actor for Excalibur is, you're missing one of the jokes. Also, Excalibur has a lovely singing voice. :)
> 
> On a completely different note, when Milla, Jude, and Alvin came back from Excalibur's cave, no one knew whether the consummate liar was lying again. But since Jude and Milla didn't contradict his story about Milla's attempt to kill Excalibur and it didn't sound out of character for her (and then Arche went berserk) it was accepted as the truth. But no one was prepared for Milla racing down the school hallway, practice sword raised high while Jude raced after her trying to calm her down. Naturally, Jude did not manage to calm Milla and her stabbing attempt on Excalibur missed by mere centimeters. His cane smacked into the back of her knees, sending Milla careening into the wall... thus starting the first of what was twice daily attacks (occasionally three attacks) on Excalibur from Milla.
> 
> Her friends saw the de-escalation to once or twice a week as a sign that Milla was starting to mellow.
> 
> "I am the future Lord of Spirits! I'm not taking this crap from him!"


	19. Traditions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – It is not my intention to profit from someone else's work, just to play with the characters for a little while.
> 
> Inspired by – Estelle's veil, which made me think about other things Yuri could put in his hair... like a pretty lily flower :)

Yuri always looked forward to his birthday. Flynn's too, but Yuri's birthday came a day earlier (which Flynn insisted on when they were kids and Yuri finally admitted that he didn't know his birth date) and so he'd countdown to his birthday in anticipation of their annual two-day celebration of being best friends.  
  
Most years they couldn't afford much in the way of gifts. When they were ten, however, they pooled their saved gald and managed to have just enough to buy the sword they'd been eying at the weapons shop (the dealer admitted, a few years later, that he'd given them a discount because he'd known just how hard they worked to earn the gald). For a long time, that sword was the most expensive present they managed.  
  
But this year, Yuri managed to lose a week after falling from Zaude. Barely remembered nightmares interrupted by moments so clouded in pain that Yuri couldn't tell if they were real or just his mind trying to cope with the combination of injury and infection. Certainly he hadn't been lucid during that time. Waking up, he'd known that time had passed, but wrapping his head around the exact amount had proven to be a challenge.  
  
With the threat of the Adephagos looming over the world, Yuri didn't exactly have the time to adjust either. So, after leaving Tarqaron and returning to Aurnion, Yuri wasn't exactly aware of just what the date was.  
  
It didn't help that they got back late and then Inn was already full. They were tired, cranky, and they wanted real beds to sleep in, dammit.  
  
Fortunately, since Ioder had already left for Zaphias, Estelle and Rita took that room. Kaufman had extra space in her guild house that she let Judy and Karol use. Raven was able to find space with his brigade, who were overjoyed to have Raven back in one piece. Yuri found himself crashing in Flynn's room, much to his friend's relief and amusement. (Repede, of course, followed Yuri and was happy to have both his favorite humans where he could keep an eye on them.)  
  
After what turned out to be the best sleep he'd had since well before their first visit to Myorzo, Yuri woke up snuggled up against Flynn. His face buried in the crook of Flynn's neck and shoulder, the knight's arms wrapped tightly around his waist, and their legs tangled beneath the sheets.  
  
"Good morning," Flynn murmured, running his fingers through Yuri's hair and gently smoothing out the tangles he encountered.  
  
"Don't wanna wake up," Yuri mumbled, nuzzling closer in.  
  
"It's been a long time since we've had to bunk together like this," Flynn observed; the lilt in his voice made it sound like he was smiling.  
  
"Mmhmm..." Yuri hummed and pulled back a little to sleepily look Flynn in the eyes. "We roomed together when I was in the Knights, but that was separate beds. So... I guess we stopped sleeping in the same bed when we were fourteen... no, fifteen." They'd had a sleep over for their birthdays that year, neither quite used to being able to afford separate rooms yet and trying to ignore the fact that the bed they'd used was barely big enough to accommodate the both of them. Needless to say, they'd been horrible uncomfortable and refused to admit defeat anyway.  
  
"It's kind of nice... seeing first thing in the morning that you're here and safe and not... missing out there somewhere." Flynn's hand in Yuri's hair stilled while his arm around Yuri's waist tightened for a moment. Then he relaxed and went back to stroking Yuri's hair again.  
  
"I'm sorry about that. Most of the time you were looking for me, I was completely out of it. Took a bad hit and Duke looked after me, but he kept me drugged unconscious pretty much the whole time."  
  
Flynn smirked. "That was probably for his own sanity. You make a lousy patient."  
  
Huffing, Yuri swatted Flynn's shoulder lightly. "I bet he has a terrible bedside manner, anyway. Duke's not one for conversation or cheering people up."  
  
"I'll take your word for it."  
  
The two of them lay there for a long moment, quietly absorbed in each other, when it occurred to Yuri that best friends didn't do this. Even after a night of sleeping comfortably in the same bed together, friends didn't cuddle like this in the morning. Except, apparently, they did.  
  
Yuri tried to tell himself that thinking what they had could be anything else – anything more – was just wishful thinking.  
  
"I've got some meetings to take care of this morning, but I'm planning on taking this afternoon off. You'll still be here this afternoon... right?" Flynn asked, his tone uncertain.  
  
"Yeah. We're going to be here at least a few days. There are some contracts we're going to take with Kaufman concerning some of the bigger monsters in the area that there aren't enough Knights in town to go after. Actually, we might even stick around for a few weeks; depends on how long it takes to get them all."  
  
"Good." Flynn reluctantly released Yuri and clambered out of the bed. "You can stay with me for as long as you want," he added. "I doubt the Inn will get much free space any time soon."  
  
"Thanks." Yuri grinned and then rolled over, pulling up the covers so he could go back to sleep for a little while longer. If he happened to curl up against the pillow Flynn had been using, well... Flynn didn't seem to notice.

* * *

A little before noon, Yuri finally made himself climb out of bed, shower, and make himself presentable. Then he went out to join the others for lunch.  
  
"I wonder why Flynn's got that flower with him." Karol's curiosity was what alerted Yuri to the fact that Flynn must have finished up his paperwork for the morning.  
  
Mentally counting up the days as he turned to face Flynn, Yuri smiled as he saw the orange lily in Flynn's hands. Standing up, he ignored his friends' speculation on the flower and walked over to meet his favorite blond.  
  
"I completely lost track of time this year," Yuri admitted. "I could have sworn there were still two more weeks until today."  
  
Flynn nodded and grinned. "I thought it was something like that. I considered saying something this morning, but it isn't often that I get to surprise you on your birthday." Stepping forward, Flynn's face was mere inches from Yuri's as his hands slid into Yuri's hair. He gathered up the long strands into a rhybgaro tail, but only after taking an unnecessarily long amount of time doing what basically amounted to petting, as far as Yuri was concerned.  
  
By the time Flynn was adjusting the lily over Yuri's ear, having secured the stem in the hair tie, Yuri's heart was thudding so hard that he thought it was a wonder Flynn couldn't hear. A little shiver ran through Yuri as Flynn's fingers trailed down the side of his face for a moment. "Why orange?"  
  
"It means passion," Flynn responded, his eyes bright with amusement.  
  
"Trying to say something about me finally getting out of the lower quarter and finding something to do with my life?" Yuri teased lightly.  
  
"Only that you seem really happy now," Flynn sounded a little wistful. "I was always pushing you to do something more with your life, but I should have realized that it was something you needed to do on your own schedule."  
  
"I get to see you more now, too," Yuri observed quietly, the words seeming to hover oddly between them. "That's a big part of me being happier."  
  
Flynn seemed to lean forward some and then...  
  
"Are you two going to eat or not!"  
  
Yuri turned and scowled at Karol. Flynn just laughed, though, and started towards the table, his hand pressing briefly between Yuri's shoulder blades to coax him along.  
  
"Now, now, Karol, they were having a moment and you ruined it," Raven was chastising as the two seated themselves.  
  
A slight blush painted itself on Flynn's cheeks.  
  
"So, uh... what's with the flower?" Karol asked, cutting off Yuri before he could correct Raven.  
  
"It looks like a lily," Judy observed. "It suits you, Yuri." She grinned cheekily.  
  
Estelle opened her mouth to add in what was surely meant to be some teasing of her own only to be interrupted. "Ah, good afternoon, sir!"  
  
"Captain Leblanc," Flynn nodded at the saluting Knight. "I'm off duty right now; is there something that needs my attention?"  
  
"Not at the moment, sir. Just wanted to thank you again for the promotion." Leblanc looked rather pleased.  
  
"I guess that makes the Schwann Brigade the Leblanc Brigade now, huh?" Raven asked cheerfully. "Congratulations."  
  
"Ah, well, I'm still calling it the Schwann Brigade," Leblanc admitted. "Thank you... Raven."  
  
"You definitely deserve the promotion," Estelle threw in. "But I've got a question for you since you know Yuri and Flynn pretty well. Do you know what the flower is about?"  
  
"Flower?" He turned to Yuri and nodded. "Oh, that is today, isn't it? Happy Birthday, Yuri."  
  
"Thank you, Leblanc." Yuri snickered at the looks on the others faces. "I'd forgotten myself until Flynn showed up a few minutes ago."  
  
"Flynn gives you flowers for your birthday? Isn't that kind of... girly?" Karol blurted out and then immediately turned bright red. "I... I mean..."  
  
"Girly?!" Rita turned towards the kid with a hand raised threateningly.  
  
"I always wanted someone to give me flowers for my birthday... or someone to give flowers to," Estelle mused thoughtfully, glancing sideways at Rita.  
  
Rita blushed, a rare and hilariously adorable sight that only Estelle seemed capable of causing. Her hand lowered and she muttered something pink tulips, determinedly not looking at Estelle.  
  
"We couldn't usually afford actual presents," Yuri told Karol, taking pity on the kid. "So for Flynn's birthday, which is tomorrow, I usually just cook him something special. However, Flynn can't cook to save his life," Flynn scowled at Yuri, who just smirked in response. "The first time he tried to cook for me I convinced him to get me something pretty instead." He tapped the flower. "Since flowers are both pretty and inexpensive... it just became our thing."  
  
"That's really sweet, you two," Judy commented with a smirk.  
  
Yuri just quirked an eyebrow at her and flipped open his menu. Glancing over at Leblanc, he added, "there's room to join, if you want."  
  
"I'm afraid I still have some work to accomplish before having lunch," Leblanc replied. "But thank you." Making his goodbyes, Leblanc disappeared back into the bustle of Aurnion.  
  
"Huh... I didn't quite realize you two were so close," Raven observed. "He was pretty concerned about you when you went missing, but I'm surprised he knows things like your birthday." The look on his face was very much a 'Schwann' expression, as if he was wondering why Leblanc hadn't made himself more helpful in poaching Yuri from Niren's brigade years earlier.  
  
After the Heracles, while they'd been recovering in Capua Nor and preparing for the trek through the ice floes, Yuri had asked Raven if he'd known Captain Niren. It had been strange to hear Raven talk about Niren as a fellow Captain of the Knights, but what was even weirder was hearing that the only reason Yuri had been assigned to Niren's brigade alongside Flynn had been because Raven had lost a bet. Apparently, Raven had seen Yuri practicing in the training yards and immediately wanted him for his brigade; that day in jail when Raven gave him the key to his cell, Raven had finally put the recruit he'd lost the bet over together with the troublemaker that Leblanc seemed oddly fond of and made a split second judgment call when he decided to 'trip' in front of Yuri's cell.  
  
What Raven didn't know, however, was that Leblanc had been almost as much of a constant in Yuri's life as Hanks. Maybe he'd tell Raven about it later, but for now Yuri just wanted to enjoy a nice relaxing day. Long stories could wait for another time.  
  
"I'm just his favorite repeat-offender," Yuri joked. "Though, if he knew how much time you spend in jail, old man..."  
  
"Ugh, you wound me, kid. Those cots are just good for my back, that's all."  
  
"Which would be more believable if you had back problems," Rita shot back before Yuri could. She was grinning; whether Rita was willing to admit it or not, she loved arguing for the sake of arguing and no one argued with her quite like Raven did.  
  
Raven, of course, immediately slouched in his seat and put a hand on his back. "Ow," he said woodenly. "Ow, my aching back."  
  
"Very believable," Judy assured him.  
  
Snickering, Yuri turned to Flynn and bumped shoulders with him. "See what I put up with?"  
  
"You deserve them," Flynn told him with a laugh of his own. For a moment, Flynn's hair seemed to shine in the sunlight. But then a cloud passed over, giving them some much needed shade, and Yuri dragged his attention away.  
  
Still, the image of Flynn practically glowing, his eyes sparkling with mirth, left Yuri feeling a little lightheaded and a wistful, wondering what would have happened earlier if Karol hadn't interrupted.

* * *

Eventually lunch came to an end and Flynn convinced Yuri to let him give a tour of all the town's changes. The last time Yuri had been to Aurnion, there hadn't been time to explore. So Yuri cheerfully let Flynn grab his left hand and drag him all around the town.  
  
They wandered through the market and Yuri oohed and aahed over the locally made wood crafts that were already being sold. They stopped by the stone mason guild's booth and discussed some of the upcoming projects the guild was negotiating with both the Empire and the Union to either shore up existing city walls or build new ones where none existed to protect against monster attacks. The lily remained in Yuri's hair the whole time and, though he got a few odd looks for it, no one was brave enough, or impolite enough, to ask.  
  
At one point they noticed Leblanc having lunch with Kaufman. Noting it to mention to Raven later, Yuri suggested they double back around so as not to disturb the pair; Flynn agreed, taking Yuri into the 'residential district' and pointing out which of the houses he'd helped construct. It was nice, hearing Flynn's stories about getting to know the populace. Listening to Flynn talk about little girls looking for lost dolls, impromptu square dancing, and a dozen silly arguments was like hearing about the Lower Quarter.  
  
Despite how different the town was, there was something about the place that felt like home. Though that might just be a side-effect of spending time with Flynn. Yuri wasn't entirely certain.  
  
All too soon it was dinner time. Yuri insisted on cooking himself so it could just be the two of them like always. As much as he loved his friends, he wanted dinner to be just for him and Flynn. Not that there were any objections to his plan to be had.  
  
However, once dinner was cooked and the two were seated together at the table, Flynn began to get a little antsy. His anxiousness only increased over the course of the meal and by the time they were done, Yuri was surprised Flynn hadn't fallen out of his seat from all the nervous squirming he'd done.  
  
"Are you going to tell me what's bothering you or should I keep on pretending that you've simply forgotten how to be still?" Yuri teased, though his concern tinged his voice.  
  
"Um... well... I... I have another present for you, but I'm not sure if you'll want it or not." Flynn blushed faintly and ran a hand through his hair, making the already messy locks look even more ridiculously unkempt.  
  
"There's only one way to know," Yuri intoned solemnly before scooting his chair around to sit closer to Flynn. Grinning impishly, he leaned over into Flynn's personal space. "Bring on the present!" he cheered.  
  
Flynn laughed and ducked his head a bit, reaching up to brush some of Yuri's bangs out of the way. "You need a trim," he murmured absently and then leaned in just enough to brush his lips against Yuri's.  
  
Yuri blinked in surprise as Flynn pulled away. "That's it?" he asked.  
  
"Well... yeah..."  
  
"A kiss?"  
  
"Yes. I... uh... sorry..." Flynn started to get up, but Yuri grabbed his arm and forced him to stay seated.  
  
"You should be," Yuri grumbled. "One measly kiss is all? Not even a proper kiss really..." Flynn seemed to get the point because he leaned back in and silenced Yuri with a much longer smooch. Yuri was the one who pulled away this time, taking deep breaths as he reminded himself that, yes, oxygen was important. "Well, that was better. Much bet..." Flynn cut him off again.  
  
"We've known each other for sixteen years, just about," Flynn murmured when their third kiss ended. "I think I just finally figured out the best way to make you stop being obnoxious."  
  
"Took your time on that one," Yuri challenged with a grin. "Though... I can think of a few other things you could do. No hints, though. You've got to figure them out yourself."  
  
Flynn's eyes slid to the bed. "I may have an idea, or two."  
  
"Mmm... I approve," Yuri declared, his already enjoyable birthday having just become indescribably better. "But first, maybe we should get this into some water," he reached up to gently pluck the lily from his hair. "I'd hate to ruin one of your presents."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Interestingly enough, orange lilies also represent revenge.
> 
> So this whole story blossomed from the idea of Flynn putting a lily in Yuri's hair. ;)
> 
> Additionally, the 'second present' section was initially typed while battling Estelle (puppy-Estelle, not story-Estelle) for control of my keyboard. Most of the time she tolerates me tapping away at this thing that steals her place on my lap. Other times she brings me a rope bone and demands I play, now, because she is puppy, princess of the house... and bored. Then there are the times she tries to just shove the laptop out of her way so that she can take its place. She is not subtle... only adorable and, thankfully, tiny. Thus it's not the end of the world when she inevitably steps on my keyboard with her dainty little paws. Fortunately, I managed to remove all of her key-smashing additions to the story.


	20. Surf and Sand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – It's all Bamco's and not mine.
> 
> Outfits – The Swimsuits

Yuri had never told Flynn, but he'd never really liked swimming all that much. He enjoyed the splashing part, but dunking was too close to drowning and there had been times when their rough-housing as kids had put Yuri too much in mind of hands around his throat and his face being shoved into water while a Knight – Finath Scifo – broke down the door to save him... too late for his mother.  
  
Flynn had been too young to recognize Yuri's need to sit out for awhile after they got too rough in the water as barely concealed panic and not tiredness like Yuri would usually claim. Yuri had tried to tell Flynn a few times that he'd rather do just about anything other than go swimming, but the blond always lit up at the idea of splashing around in the water with Yuri and it did get easier for Yuri to deal with swimming over time, though it was definitely an activity Yuri was only ever interested in doing for Flynn's sake.  
  
Still it was a lucky thing he'd chosen to keep up with the skill, taking the time every summer to practice, otherwise he'd have probably drowned when he'd rescued Ioder from the burning, sinking yacht. As it was, he'd been terrified the whole time and the only reason he'd been able to focus was because this person he'd found would die if he failed.  
  
No pressure, right?  
  
Rita really had a point about Yuri's talent for understatement.  
  
His experience at Zaude didn't really help with Yuri's water issues. While he didn't remember much about what happened after his fall, he had a recurring dream for weeks afterwards about the shock of hitting the water knocking the breath from his lungs, sinking into the ruins of what looked like a once impressive city even as he failed in his struggle to swim... pain and oxygen deprivation causing his vision to tunnel in... and what was probably Duke appearing at the last moment to drag him back to the surface, though the dream always ended with him still beneath the waves. The nightmare was, probably, fairly close to the actual events, his subconscious dealing with memories his conscious mind couldn't quite reach.  
  
Still, the nightmares didn't stop until Yuri finally saw Flynn and fought a ridiculous amount of monsters with him. It was the first time since waking up that Yuri felt entirely safe and his dreams that night were warm and restful.  
  
Naturally, the drowning nightmare came back the night after the others suggested a nice relaxing day at the beach. Yuri couldn't sleep after waking up gasping for air and promised himself he'd find a nice shady spot to sleep under while the others played in the water to their hearts content.  
  
What Yuri was not counting on was Flynn's body suit for surfing. It was skin tight and, for all that it covered Flynn completely from the neck down to his ankles, there wasn't a whole lot left to the imagination. How could Flynn not consider this indecent? It was all Yuri could do to keep his face from turning bright red at the sight.  
  
Of course no one else seemed to notice how Flynn looked. Raven and Karol were distracted by Judy's bikini, which was probably the only thing Judy owned skimpier than her regular clothes (though the bunny suit was close). Estelle and Rita kept glancing at one another and blushing. Patty seemed to view both Yuri and Raven's shirtless-ness as free eye-candy and she pouted when Yuri put his button-down back on, even though he didn't actually button it back up.  
  
"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times," Yuri grumbled, counting off with his fingers as Patty filled in.  
  
"One, wrong gender. Two, jail-bait. Three, obnoxious like Raven."  
  
"Hey!" Raven was duly ignored.  
  
"Seriously," Yuri continued, "if it isn't appropriate for him to do or say something, then it isn't appropriate for you either." Giving Karol a slight thwap on the back of his head so he'd stop staring at Judy's boobs, he added, "that goes for you too, Karol. Raven is not a valid role model."  
  
"HEY!"  
  
Flynn snickered, grinning impishly when Yuri glowered at him. "Sorry. It's just kind of funny watching you be the mature one in this group."  
  
"It's a sad day indeed when I have to be the grownup," Yuri agreed, giving Flynn a smirk in return. "So does this mean you're not the mature one today?"  
  
"Well..." Flynn frowned thoughtfully, then stuck his tongue out at Yuri, gaining a few laughs from the others. "I guess so," he agreed with a smile. Grabbing his board, he asked, "want to learn how to surf?"  
  
"Thanks, but no thanks," Yuri gestured towards the nice shady space they'd created under a nice umbrella. "I'm going to the one place I'm guaranteed not to burn my face. I had enough sunburns as a kid to willingly subject myself to one today."  
  
"So, you're planning on being a beach bunny?" Judy joked, pulling a pair of black bunny ears out of her bag and waving them teasingly at Yuri.  
  
Mimicking Flynn's answer from earlier, Yuri stuck his tongue out at her. Then he retreated to the shade and waited for everyone else to hit the water before attempting to nap. He dozed off to the sight of Flynn riding the waves.

* * *

_Yuri tried to kick against the water but the pain in his side was overwhelming, rendering him helpless as the water sucked him down into its depths. He clawed ineffectually at the water, panic flooding his veins with adrenaline, but it was no use._  
  
 _His lungs were dying to suck in oxygen, but he didn't dare breathe in. Trying to breathe would kill him as surely as continuing not to breathe would._  
  
 _Dark spots flickered in front of his eyes..._  
  
Yuri rolled on his side and gasped, startled to realize he was awake, on a beach, and totally fine, save for a fading phantom ache where his latest scar was.  
  
"Hey... are you okay?" Flynn's asked, placing a hand on Yuri's shoulder. The blond was kneeling beside Yuri on the towels, the area still well shaded from the sun.  
  
"Yeah..." Yuri attempted to smile as he sat up. The dream of Zaude's cold waters had left him shivering, however, and his smile slid off. "Okay, so... not really. Just... bad dreams, that's all."  
  
"Bad dreams about what?" Flynn's frown turned just ever so slightly mulish, indicating to Yuri that his friend intended to push until he got answers and found some way to help.  
  
"Just... Zaude. When I hit the water after falling..." Yuri shrugged. "I was injured before the fall and nearly drowned."  
  
"Was coming here," Flynn gestured to the ocean, "a bad idea?"  
  
Yuri shook his head, "it's just something I have to work through, Flynn. Mostly, I've just been really exhausted lately. No matter what was chosen for relaxing, I'd have tried to just sleep through it all," he admitted, leaning against Flynn's shoulder. "I've never really liked the water, but you always have. So... I wanted you to have fun."  
  
"I thought you liked going swimming with me as kids."  
  
"I liked doing anything with you as kids," Yuri countered wryly. "Didn't care what we were doing as long as it was the two of us." Flynn huffed softly in amusement and started petting Yuri's hair. "You're not getting sand in my hair, are you?" Yuri asked warily, his eyes drifting shut.  
  
"...No..." Flynn responded uncertainly, pulling his hand away, as if to inspect it.  
  
"You are!" Yuri pulled away and scowled at Flynn, reaching up to try and pat the sand out. His efforts didn't really seem to help, though.  
  
Instead of being suitably ashamed of himself for getting sand in Yuri's hair, Flynn just smiled and laughed again. Then, with a mischievous smirk, Flynn pounced Yuri, rolling the raven-haired man off the towels and out of the shade into the warm sand.  
  
"Awww! Come on Flynn! Really?" Yuri huffed and leaned back, secretly enjoying the feeling of Flynn perched on top of him. "You suck. Do you know how long it'll take to wash all this sand out of my hair tonight?"  
  
Leaning in close, Flynn lightly bumped noses with Yuri before tilting his head to the side to brush his lips against Yuri's ear. "I could always help with that too," he murmured, moving back up for a chaste kiss against Yuri's mouth.  
  
Yuri grabbed Flynn's shoulders and pulled him closer for a longer kiss. A loud wolf whistle split the air when they parted.  
  
"Jealous, Judy?" Yuri called teasingly as Flynn rolled off to lay in the sand next to him.  
  
"Oh, immensely," she replied with a laugh. "Raven won't kiss me. I've been trying to be subtle about it, but he seems to have completely missed my meaning every time."  
  
Sitting up, Yuri grinned over at a very flustered Raven who was sputtering incoherently at what he'd just heard. "I think he gets it now," Yuri teased Judy. Beside Yuri, Flynn laughed and sat up, sliding his arms around Yuri's waist. Leaning back against Flynn's chest, Yuri muttered, "so, this is nice."  
  
Flynn hummed in agreement and pressed a feather-light kiss against Yuri's neck, eliciting a shiver from Yuri in response. "Very nice," Flynn murmured in agreement. "Ready for lunch?" he added, pulling away and standing up, offering Yuri a hand up with a warm smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yuri's reasons for disliking the water would also be why he isn't fond of having things around his neck, like shirt collars.
> 
> Also, this was originally meant to have a section from Flynn's point of view, but it didn't really fit with the rest and got cut. Mostly it was just set up and was kind of redundant.


	21. Unyielding Justice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Ye olde song and dance.
> 
> Outfit – Dark Enforcer
> 
> I really love how Tales of Vesperia handled the theme of justice. Both Yuri and Flynn had equally valid points of view on what justice meant and they both had to learn that sticking rigidly to only a single concept of justice was a really bad idea. I think the PS3 version does a better job of making the point, though. Since Flynn and Yuri team up more, it makes it more obvious that it's when both their ideals are balanced together that they're at their most effective. They both have to learn to concede that the other has a point and readjust their views.

Surrounded by the light and laughter of a warm winter day on the outer edges of spring, Yuri should have been enjoying the ambiance of the lower quarter as the people he loved and sought to protect milled about their daily lives. Instead he sat on the edge of the fountain, gazing morosely at his reflection.  
  
"Are you alright?"  
  
Yuri started in surprise, glancing up to see Flynn walking over. Tilting his head to the side, Yuri shrugged. "I'm fine," he answered. Patting the spot next to him, he gestured for Flynn to join him.  
  
"You looked like you had a lot on your mind," Flynn told him, sitting down beside Yuri on the fountain barrier.  
  
"Just... thinking about how everything has changed." Yuri quieted for a moment as they watched some of the lower quarter children run by them. "A lot is still the same, but..." he sighed, "maybe I'm just different."  
  
"You are in a strange mood, aren't you?"  
  
"We went to the ice floes this morning to meet one of the spirits who's been causing Undine trouble. Her name's Celsius... she'd been freezing things in places where she shouldn't. Undine was worried she'd end up pissing off Efreet."  
  
"Did you smooth things over?"  
  
"Yeah..." Yuri trailed off pensively and Flynn poked him in the shoulder to catch his attention. "She just wanted to meet me. She... she was one of the spirits who came from the Adephagos."  
  
"So she wanted to meet the guy who saved her?" Flynn grinned, beaming even wider when Yuri blushed in embarrassment. "It's about time you got the praise you deserve."  
  
"I wasn't exactly alone," Yuri muttered, looking away.  
  
"But you're the one who got everyone together. You may not see it, but I do Yuri. You're the heart of Brave Vesperia. That group never would have come together without you."  
  
"Heh... maybe. I still think things would have worked out, one way or another. That's not really what got me thinking about how different things are, though. I... was kind of already in this mood by that point." Holding out a hand in front of him, Yuri gave the glove on his hand a critical look. "It's too cold out on the floes for my usual outfit, so I pulled this one out this morning instead. With the jacket I keep on the Fiertia, it wasn't too bad on the ice."  
  
"I don't think I've ever seen you wear this before," Flynn observed. "It looks good on you, though," he offered thoughtfully. "When did you get them?"  
  
"While we were trying to figure out how to deal with the Adephagos, this guy I knew... Clay, he gave them to me. He was a lot like me," Yuri admitted. "I'm not really sure what happened to him, though."  
  
"He... gave you clothes." The expression on Flynn's face was hard to read.  
  
"Well, he was going to jail," Yuri said glibly, enjoying the way Flynn's eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly. A speechless Flynn was always entertaining. "He didn't think he'd need them anymore.  
  
"Anyway, I didn't really know him well. I think I just reminded him of himself. We first met in Nordipolica. I'd heard about a guild that was shaking down tourists at night and decided to take an evening stroll just to see what would happen. Clay had the same idea and he caught them mugging someone.  
  
"He beat the shit out of the guildsmen and left them floating in the harbor. I got there when the fighting started, but he didn't seem to need help, so I hung back. Learned a new sword move while watching him. When he left, I fished those guys out of the water and they were grateful enough that they let me turn them over to Natz without too much complaining."  
  
"So he just left them to drown?" Flynn's tone was flat and unimpressed.  
  
"I... don't think so. He knew I was there, so he knew I might help them." Yuri shrugged. "But I don't think he cared either way. I saw him again later, when I went back to Mantaic after causing Cumore's death. He was sitting out on the beach, telling stories to the kids. There were rumors about someone kidnapping children at night, but the parents trusted Clay enough to let him basically babysit for them. So..."  
  
"You were curious and went out late, by yourself, looking for trouble?" Flynn filled in for him. He rolled his eyes. "Can't leave anything alone, can you? Couldn't you have at least taken someone with you to watch your back?"  
  
Yuri shrugged. Yeah, looking back he probably should have at least brought Raven or Judy with him. He'd be the first to admit that he hadn't been in the greatest head space at the time, though. It had taken meeting Pharaoh to snap him out of it and remind him of what was really important. But rather than saying all that aloud, Yuri just shrugged and continued on with his story.  
  
"It was one of the knights, one of the few from Cumore's brigade that didn't get thrown in jail after... after that night. He was kidnapping a little orphan girl when Clay found him. They were already fighting when I got there, so I grabbed the girl and took her to a family I know there. When she was safe, I went back and the knight was already dead.  
  
"Clay told me to be careful. He knew about Ragou and Cumore and... he didn't want me to follow the same path as him. He didn't think I was so far along that I couldn't turn back, but that he'd already damned himself." Yuri leaned against Flynn's shoulder, resting his cheek against the armor. "The next time I saw him, it was in Zaphias, in the nobles' quarter. He'd gone back to see his brother, Shel... to kill Shel for murdering the swordsman who'd taught Clay to fight. Shel had blamed that man for Clay being away so long and had thought killing him would bring Clay back, even if it meant...  
  
"I saw them standing together and something seemed wrong. Maybe it was how they were standing or... I don't know. There was just something wrong. When we got closer, Clay stabbed Shel. Clay was like ice and Shel was dying, yet still so happy he got to see his brother one last time. Then Clay ran off and I followed after him. No plan at all; I just had to know why." Yuri shivered, remembering how dead Clay's eyes had seemed.  
  
"Clay was planning to turn himself in to the knights. He said that... he had to kill Shel or else everything he'd come to believe in would be meaningless. I... disagreed. He gave me these clothes so that I'd remember not to stray too far down a vigilante's path. Maybe there was no going back for him, but... his own brother..."  
  
Flynn reached up and ran his fingers soothingly through Yuri's hair. "Hit too close to home?"  
  
"Yeah." Yuri stayed silent for a while, enjoying the feeling of Flynn stroking his hair. It was soothing and made his thoughts easier to put in order. "Back then, I'd have probably killed that knight if Clay hadn't gotten to him first. Whether he was selling the children or killing them or... worse," he ended lamely, not really wanting to fill in what he'd thought was going on back then, "I wouldn't have trusted Alexei's Knights to handle things right. But now..."  
  
Flynn's hand stilled. "Now?" he echoed.  
  
"Most of the corruption in the knights has been weeded out and I know you can handle the rest as you find it. I'd probably beat the crap out of someone like that and I'd still want to kill him, but... I don't think that I'd actually kill him myself now." He shrugged. "I guess it's because I have faith in you."  
  
Letting out a little sigh of relief, Flynn's fingers went back to petting. "I worry about that sometimes. If I've made things safer... if someone like Ragou came along again, would you be able to trust me to handle things my way and not feel like killing him is the only option? I don't think people who do the things he did deserve to live either... but I can't stand what killing them did to you.  
  
"After Cumore... you were so cold when I talked to you. I felt like I'd failed you because you couldn't trust me to bring those kinds of people to justice and because..." he trailed off, but Yuri could fill in the blanks.  
  
"I came really close to making all the same mistakes Clay did," Yuri admitted softly, his eyes darting back to the water. In this outfit, he looked so much like Clay that the similarities between them were all too easy to see. "There's a lot of darkness in me, Flynn. Sometimes I don't know how you or Estelle or any of the others can see anything but that darkness."  
  
"We both came pretty close to losing our way that year," Flynn replied, his hand dropping down to hold Yuri's.  
  
"You never would have followed Alexei once he showed his true colors," Yuri objected, knowing it was honesty and not loyalty that fueled his statement. Flynn simply did not have it in him to follow a treasonous leader.  
  
"I was already following his orders without thought, though. If you hadn't called me on it and Alexei had been more... subtle with his plans, who knows? I put so much emphasis on duty and following orders that... I almost forgot about what Captain Niren tried to teach me about a knight's calling to a higher purpose." Flynn squeezed Yuri's hand tightly. "I've put my faith in the wrong person so many times, it's a wonder you trust my judgment at all."  
  
"Well, you put your faith in me, don't you?" Yuri teased, smiling faintly and knowing full well what Flynn was trying to do there. "Anyway... wearing this brought everything with Clay back to mind and just... reminded me of how close I came to losing sight of who I really want to be. Justice, vengeance... the line between the two is hard for me to see sometimes."  
  
Some things had to be done, regardless of whether it was a crime or not. Yuri had believed that the night he killed Ragou and nothing had changed his certainty on the subject. Clay had believed the same thing, but had lost sight of the difference between justice and vengeance. When the law failed to see justice done, sometimes extreme measures were necessary. But taking those extreme measures in the past didn't make it hypocritical to use other methods to achieve justice in the present.  
  
Sometimes the law did work and it was okay to step back... to yield to another form of justice.  
  
Making different choices today didn't invalidate previous decisions; though Yuri was still having a difficult time wrapping his head around that concept himself... he felt like maybe he was getting there.  
  
"I think Clay would be relieved that I didn't end up like him."  
  
"If you'd like, I can find out what happened to him," Flynn offered.  
  
"Nah..." Yuri closed his eyes. Odds were that Clay had been executed already. Even if he was alive in prison, Yuri doubted Clay would appreciate a visit. "I think... I think I just needed to talk to you about what happened."


	22. The Kids are Alright

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – All hail Bamco, owner of the wondrous Tales series. I offer up a fanfiction, no infringement intended.
> 
> Inspiration – Mistletoe
> 
> An outside looking in perspective on this one. :)

There were a lot of orphans in the lower quarter of Zaphias. There was a single official orphanage in the entire city, located in the public quarter, and the matron there was a mean drunk with a habit of misplacing children. Leblanc had tried several times to have her arrested or replaced, but she was the youngest daughter of a small noble family and they always hushed things up for her.  
  
Leblanc wasn't entirely certain why that woman wanted to be around children, but he had his suspicions... and would generally aid in the escape of any child who chose not to stay there. It was, unfortunately, the best he could do.  
  
There were several unofficial orphanages in the lower quarter. The family that ran the Inn, for example, would fill up their empty rooms with orphaned children during their slow months, and their kitchen and personal home during the busy seasons. They had several friends, like Ethel and Hanks, who would help care for the children as well, taking the kids in when the Inn had paying guests and helping to keep the kids out of trouble during the day.  
  
As a Knight living in the barracks, Leblanc didn't have a home of his own to share, but when he was both on and off duty, he spent time tracking down lost kids and trouble-makers who might otherwise land themselves in jail should other Knights be the ones to find them. Yuri Lowell and Flynn Scifo were some of the most well known trouble-makers amongst the lower quarter orphans and it was those two whom Leblanc found himself searching for on this cold winter's eve.  
  
Naturally, the children were in the last place Leblanc thought to look.  
  
"Yeah! You'd better run!" shouted a familiar voice as three of the local bullies came barreling around the corner of an alley and out onto the street.  
  
The boys were bloodied and bruised and Leblanc paid them no mind for now. He'd track them down later and give them a nice tour of the jail cells – when the cells were full – to remind them of what bullies grow up to be if they don't choose to be better people.  
  
Peering around the corner, Leblanc smiled at the sight of Flynn standing protectively in front of Yuri, scraped up fists raised and a defiant expression on his face. Leblanc frowned, however, upon getting a better view of Yuri; the child's arm was at an odd angle and tears were running silently down his face.  
  
"What happened here?" Leblanc asked, fully rounding the corner.  
  
Flynn relaxed at the sight of the Knight and Yuri pulled in an audibly shaking breath. "Those butt-faces," Flynn growled, "broke Yuri's arm. So I beat them up." The blond boy's expression was still defiant, as though he was daring Leblanc to say he'd done the wrong thing.  
  
"My arms not broken," Yuri muttered around sharp, pained inhalations. "I..." he winced and tried to hold still as Leblanc knelt down beside him and began to inspect the boy's arm. "I think it's just dis..." Yuri frowned, thinking the word over and then nodded and wiped at his tears with his good hand. "It's dislocated."  
  
"I think you're right," Leblanc agreed. "Dr. Everheart is still at the clinic down the street. Let's go see him and get your arm fixed."  
  
With Flynn's help, Leblanc coaxed Yuri to his feet and led the two boys to the free clinic that James Everheart ran in the evenings. Though James had been packing up for the night, he took one look at Leblanc and the two children darkening his doorstep, smiled ruefully, and let them inside.  
  
Yuri's arm was popped back in place fairly quickly and then wrapped up in a sling. The doctor made sure Yuri knew that if his arm felt prickly or numb or got worse instead of better to come back to the clinic. Any of that could be a sign of a more serious problem, like pinched nerves, and should be looked at immediately.  
  
Once Yuri was done and sucking on a lollypop, James pulled Flynn aside to bandage his hands and check him over from any other injuries his beat down on the bullies might have resulted in. Flynn was never one to start fights – except maybe with Yuri – but Flynn always finished fights, and swiftly too.  
  
While Flynn grumbled over stinging antiseptic, Leblanc watched Yuri wander under the mistletoe to look at some of the children's books James kept in the office. On a whim, Leblanc reached out and put a hand on the kid's left shoulder, which was the unharmed one, and said, "look up, kiddo. That is mistletoe. Your stuck until someone you like gives you a kiss."  
  
"What?" Yuri's eyes went round and he scowled up at the little plant dangling from the ceiling. "Like a girl?" he asked derisively, making it clear he was still at that age where girls were icky. Well... that or there just weren't any girls he liked yet.  
  
"Could be," Leblanc teased. "Best friends will do too, though," he added, tilting his head towards Flynn. "But if there is a girl you'd prefer..." Leblanc trailed off with a smirk as Yuri shuddered and shook his head.  
  
"I don't like girls. They're boring and get in the way when me and Flynn are playing." Yuri started to cross his arms and then winced as he was reminded that his right shoulder still hurt.  
  
"You might change your mind in a few years," Leblanc told him with a laugh. Even if girls didn't turn out to be Yuri's type, the kid had a good head on his shoulders and he'd realize that girls didn't always get in the way. Some girls liked rough-housing and playing at monster hunting as much as Yuri and Flynn did. Certainly the little Princess could be heard complaining about why she wasn't allowed to start learning how to 'sword at things' yet.  
  
It was such a shame, really, that the girl wasn't allowed to leave the castle. These two boys were just the sort of friends she needed to stave off boredom.  
  
"What's with you two?" Flynn asked as, lollypop in hand, he joined Yuri and Leblanc.  
  
"Leblanc says I'm not supposed to leave the mistletoe until..." Yuri's cheeks turned pink and he mumbled, "youkissme."  
  
"What?" Flynn turned his confused expression on Leblanc while Dr. Everheart snickered in amusement behind the blond boy.  
  
"When someone steps under mistletoe, they aren't allowed to leave until someone they like kisses them. Best friends will do when crushes are unavailable," Leblanc informed Flynn solemnly.  
  
Nodding in understanding, Flynn walked over and kissed Yuri on the cheek. Then he headed over to the exit, popping the lollypop into his mouth.  
  
Leblanc let Yuri go, grinning in amusement as the child dazedly, and gently, put a hand to his cheek where Flynn had kissed him. Quietly, and probably not actually meant to be said aloud, Yuri muttered, "I am never going to like girls." Then, shaking his head a little, Yuri's hand dropped away and he rushed after Flynn.  
  
"Looks like someone has a crush after all," James observed with a smile.  
  
"Seems that way," Leblanc agreed.

* * *

It was hard to believe, sometimes, just how fast children grew up. The once adorable little hell-raisers were now sixteen and worked at the Inn, making enough for a shared room and food.  
  
As far as Leblanc could tell, however, some things never changed. Yuri still had his crush on Flynn and Flynn was still completely oblivious. It had to be utterly frustrating for Yuri, but Leblanc had a feeling that all Flynn needed was time. The blond boy had a way of looking at Yuri that... well... spoke volumes, even if Flynn didn't realize what the feelings he was conveying actually were.  
  
There were other things that didn't change either.  
  
Tricked into walking under the mistletoe by a certain secretly mischievous Knight, Yuri scowled at the giggling girls who wanted to 'rescue' him as he tried to discretely back away. Instead, Flynn walked over and kissed Yuri on the cheek. Yuri, naturally, turned bright red and fled into the Inn's kitchen to start his shift early.

* * *

The world was a new place. Blastia was being replaced by electric powered technology, the Empire had an Emperor again (and a vice-Empress), there were Spirits floating through the world offering pacts to help people use magic, and Flynn Scifo was Commandant of the Knights.  
  
Never would Leblanc have guessed that the little kid who used to beat up bullies in back alleys would one day be his boss. Leblanc had been certain he'd be retired by the time Flynn became Commandant.  
  
Even more surprising was that Captain Schwann, now Raven, worked for Yuri Lowell in the guild Brave Vesperia. While Yuri joining a guild, even founding a guild, hadn't been a huge surprise for Leblanc, Sir... Raven's decision to join was. There had been times over the years when Leblanc had worried his superior, and friend, had a death wish... times when he feared that the world seemed such a dark and empty place that Raven would simply choose to end things. Sometimes laughter hid the deepest of depressions... but tonight Raven's laughter as Yuri shoved him under the mistletoe so Miss Judy could 'ambush' him there held no darkness at all.  
  
Leblanc had never felt more grateful to Yuri Lowell as he did watching his friend show true signs of recovering. Not even saving the world compared to saving a friend.  
  
There was one other change this past year had wrought that filled Leblanc with joy at seeing, however. As Raven and Judy stumbled off to a booth together, Flynn stepped purposefully under the mistletoe and pulled Yuri forward, planting a kiss on Yuri's lips and holding tightly to Yuri's waist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leblanc had just thought it'd be hilarious to mess with Yuri; he hadn't thought it would turn into a yearly tradition, but setting Yuri up to get kissed by Flynn was just too cute. Something that adorable has to repeated, right? (This story has an alternate title: The Unexpected Matchmaker.)


	23. Without

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – It's all Bamco's. I just dabble in their sandbox. :)  
> I'm going to tug at your heartstrings again. Just a warning.  
> Inspiration – Various odds and bobs... this one sort of got away from me.

Yuri woke up and, for a moment, he pretended that Flynn had only just gotten out of bed a short while ago. Just long enough for his side of the bed to have gone cold. Maybe he'd had an early meeting to attend. That happened a lot more than Yuri liked; the guildsman preferred the mornings when he could spend an hour more asleep than awake, curled up in his lover's arms, his nose pressed against Flynn's neck.

Flynn was not in a meeting.

The blond's scent lingered in the sheets and it was difficult for Yuri to pull away from them, but other things became apparent as he did. He was still almost fully dressed. His vest and belt were hooked over a chair, his boots lined up neatly beside it. There were the embers of a fire burning low in the fireplace; who ever had carried him into the castle had made sure to take good care of him when placing him in Flynn's – their – room.

Technically, Yuri still lived in the lower quarter, but it was a pretty open secret that he spent most evenings in Zaphias in Flynn's rooms. He didn't even bother scaling the wall outside their window anymore.

Maybe Leblanc had made sure Yuri made it safely back to home. Leblanc had been making certain Yuri made it home safely for years, since Yuri and Flynn... since Finath died and Yuri became a lower quarter orphan for the second time.

The problem was, home wasn't really the castle, or even his room in the Comet Inn. Home was where Flynn was and Flynn...

Flynn was missing.

It was supposed to be a routine inspection of the Knights in Mantaic. Flynn should have been gone about a week-and-a-half. Two, if things ran over, which hadn't seemed likely. The reports from that area were good, from Imperials and Guildsmen alike.

Only a day out to sea, the three ships headed for Mantaic, carrying replacement soldiers and trade goods, encountered a storm. The ships lost track of one another in the torrential downpour and immense waves. When the weather cleared, only two ships were left. The one Flynn was on... was just gone. No trace left, not even debris.

One ship turned around and headed straight back to port while the other ship carried on, searching for the missing ship while ensuring that their much needed supplies made it to the Knights who were already on low rations, running a survey of the land surrounding the archeological dig where the town of Yormgen once stood.

Leblanc was the one who'd brought the news to Yuri. He had been grateful it wasn't Sodia. Had she told him... Yuri might have decked her and she'd have arrested him on the spot. Sodia still treated Yuri like he was only a step above the mud on her boots and certainly not fit to be her Commandant's lover.

Yuri was getting rather sick of her insinuations that Flynn wasn't capable of making good choices where he was concerned. It was condescending and insulting to Flynn, who had actually arrested Yuri after the Adephagos was destroyed some three years earlier. He'd had some really good reasons not to arrest Yuri before then, what with the Knights needing all the help they could get fighting Alexei's coup and then Yuri being the only one with any experience using the Rizomata Formula (also Rita being very clear about how Yuri was the only person she trusted to use her version of Dein Nomos; no one wanted to upset the genius capable of making the very device they needed to save the world). But Yuri had known that going back to Aurnion – back to Flynn – would end with him going to jail. Sure enough, Flynn had hugged him and then guiltily held out the cuffs.

What Yuri truly regretted the most about killing Ragou and being responsible for Cumore's death, though he still believed his actions were necessary at the time, was the position it forced Flynn into. Murder was an executable offense; Flynn, and Yuri, had honestly believed that his life suddenly had a much closer deadline.

They'd both been wrong on that count, though.

Ioder stepped in a day later and pardoned Yuri, for service rendered to humanity, and made Yuri a Knight of the Realm, which entailed certain obligations to both the Empire and the Guilds that Yuri didn't like thinking about too much. He'd also warned Yuri that if he did anything that Flynn had to arrest him for again, Ioder would cheerfully assign him life imprisonment where he'd be kept out of trouble for Flynn's piece of mind. You see, Ioder was fond of having a Commandant who was not just competent, but trustworthy, and Yuri killing people, even just horrible ones that were plagues upon society, did bad things to Flynn's stress levels. Ioder did not like it when Flynn was over stressed. Apparently the Emperor was as loyal to his Commandant as his Commandant was to him.

Flynn had been rather pleased by Yuri's new found respect for Ioder.

Yuri stayed out of trouble after that, for the most part anyway. But with Flynn missing, Yuri's nerves were frayed pretty much to the breaking point.

After hearing the bad news from Leblanc, Yuri had immediately sought out Judy in order to enlist Ba'ul's help in doing an aerial search for Flynn's missing ship. He'd clung to the railing of the Fiertia for three days, scanning the water as they searched for any sign of a missing Imperial ship. He barely ate and he didn't sleep; it was little wonder he'd collapsed.

He'd come to moments later, dizzy and claustrophobic from the way his guild crowded around him. Estelle had convinced him to take a break below decks and Yuri agreed to some soup, which he sort of picked at, feeling more nauseous than anything. Yuri spent more time pouring over the maps, trying to figure out if there was a way to better optimize their search and tighten their coordination with the Imperial search vessels below.

" _How about some tea? It'll soothe your nerves."_

Yuri never would have guessed Estelle would drug him. But here he was, still struggling to push through the last vestiges of whatever she'd dosed his tea with.

If he weren't so damn worried about Flynn, Yuri probably would have been impressed.

Instead he was trying very, very hard not to start hyperventilating. Everywhere he looked was a place where pieces of Flynn should have been, but weren't. His armor was missing from the corner of the room where Yuri's fancy, barely used armor sat alone. Some of his clothes were missing from the closet. There was a canteen missing from the desk, which was devoid of the paperwork that usually crawled its way up out of Flynn's office.

Then there were the things that were there and taunted Yuri with memories of Flynn's presence. Not just the scent of Flynn lingering on the bedsheets, but the window where Yuri had knocked on as irritatingly as possible, the first time he'd visited these rooms.

_Flynn was laughing as he opened the window and grabbed Yuri's arm, dragging the raven-haired man through the window. "You're a nut," Flynn told him, eyes shining with absolute joy at seeing Yuri. "Why can't you just use doors like a normal person?"_

" _Windows start to feel neglected, you know," Yuri joked, letting Flynn steer him over to sit on the couch. He hadn't seen Flynn in three weeks and it had been far too long. The time they'd been able to go months without seeing each other had passed, seeming unfathomable now. "I like the new rooms," Yuri offered, glancing around. "Feels comfy in here already."_

" _Maybe you could... stay the night?" Flynn offered with a blush. "There's plenty of room."_

" _Mmmm... it would be a long way back to the Inn," Yuri mused with a grin. "Doesn't seem worth it to leave tonight when I want to see you first thing in the morning anyway," he added, enjoying the way Flynn's blush extended down his neck. Yuri wondered how far down Flynn's blush actually went... and if he'd get to find out tonight._

The fireplace where they'd spent many cold nights cocooned in front of the flames, enjoying the warmth of the fire and feeling of being pressed together...

_Yuri was soaked when he reached the castle steps and concluded that the only safe way to reach Flynn was to actually walk through the halls. Climbing up was certainly out; even if he didn't slip, fall, and break his neck, Flynn would be pissed off at him for being stupidly reckless instead of just regularly reckless._

_He'd felt self-conscious, trailing water into the Imperial Palace front hall, but there had actually been towels at the front door – someone there had clearly thought of everything, including sopping wet visitors at late hours – and Yuri had managed to mop up enough of the water dripping off him that he wouldn't be leaving a trail of puddles all the way up to Flynn's room._

_Despite the towel wrapped around his shoulders, by the time Yuri arrived at Flynn's door he was shaking from the cold that had permeated his damp clothes. When he walked in, Flynn looked up, somewhere between worried and relieved._

" _You used the door..."_

" _Even I'm not stupid enough to scale walls in this weather, Flynn."_

" _Right..." Flynn sounded a bit suspicious of that claim, but he didn't contest it since Yuri really had walked through the door to get there. He walked over and started undoing the knot on Yuri's belt. "Let's get you out of these clothes. You must be freezing."_

_Teeth chattering, Yuri's assertion that Flynn didn't need excuses to get him naked was probably a little funnier than intended._

Knocking at the door roused Yuri from his thoughts and he opened it. Estelle, looking fidgety and guilty, stood there.

"I... uh... thought you'd be awake by now. The sedative should have mostly worn off..." She paused and then added, "no news from the search yet."

Yuri just nodded and opened the door further, gesturing for her to come on in.

"I'm not sorry for drugging you," Estelle told him as she walked in and settled on the couch. "If you make yourself sick, you won't do any good for Flynn."

"I know." Yuri told her, sitting quietly beside her. He tried not to think of all the times he'd sat there with Flynn, a cup of tea in the blond's hands and hot chocolate in his as they talked about anything and everything or nothing at all.

She handed him an apple that had been in one of her hidden pockets on her dress. "Eat. I'll send for some soup if you think you can handle that too."

Yuri shrugged. "Maybe." He took a bite out of the fruit as ordered and started crunching on it. To his surprise, he was hungry. "Yeah... soup would be fine."

Estelle rose, went to the door, and summoned one of the maids, asking her to go fetch some bland chicken soup. Then she sat back by Yuri. "When you collapsed, we were pretty scared, Yuri. I know you're worried about Flynn, but..."

"When Flynn and I were kids, we'd go exploring outside of Zaphias," Yuri interrupted softly. "Two stupid kids with a single dull sword between us and we'd go outside of the barrier thinking nothing could stop us. The two of us against the world. Then, one day we went a little too far and a sinkhole opened up under Flynn. There was a cave system too close to the surface and Flynn was just barely heavy enough to trigger the collapse. He broke his leg and was screaming..." Yuri trailed off, setting the apple aside. He didn't feel so hungry anymore.

"I was panicking, trying to figure out how to get down to him... but Flynn calmed down enough to convince me to go get help. So I did. I ran all the way back to town and got Hanks and Leblanc and some others, but when I tried to lead them back to Flynn... I got lost. I couldn't remember the right way to go and..." Yuri choked off, his hands tightening into fists and his eyes squeezing shut. He'd never quite forgiven himself for getting lost that day. "I was about to go the wrong way again when I heard the most horrible off-key singing. Never, ever let Flynn sing for you, Estelle. It's not as bad as his cooking, but that's only because you can't get food poisoning from a mangled song."

Estelle let out an almost laugh as her hand reached over to cover Yuri's fist. Reluctantly, he let that hand relax.

"I feel the same way now that I did then, Estelle. I keep panicking and I feel like I'm letting him down."

Pink hair swished back and forth as Estelle shook her head negatively so fast Yuri thought it a wonder she didn't giver herself whiplash. "None of this is your fault, Yuri. You didn't let him down then and you aren't letting him down now. But you have to take care of yourself, Yuri. He... uh..." Estelle bit her lip and looked down nervously. "During our first visit to Capua Torim, all those years ago... when I told Flynn I was going to keep traveling with you, he asked me to do something for him. 'Take care of Yuri for me.' Every time I said I'd be traveling with you, he'd ask again. At least, he did until he finally got comfortable with idea of the others looking out for you too."

Yuri stilled and smiled faintly, because that was such a Flynn thing to do. All the time he'd been asking Yuri to take care of Estelle, he'd been asking her to take care of him too.

"He panics over you too," she added softly. "After Zaude... I had to drug his tea a couple of days after you went missing... He wasn't as calm about it as you're being. For some reason, he kept insisting that such behavior wasn't very lady like," a shark-like smile that Estelle had to have learned from Judy briefly traveled across her face. "Whenever your missions go over your estimations by more than a couple of days, he gets antsy. The last time, he was just about ready to head out to find you... only to turn around and see you about to knock on his office window to be let in."

"I don't do the window thing that often any more," Yuri told her. "It just... seemed like a good idea that day."

There came a knocking at the door and Estelle got up to retrieve the soup from the maid. She let Yuri eat in silence and, fortunately, didn't complain when Yuri only managed half the bowl before pushing it aside. She did put some crackers in his hands, though, and gave him pointed looks until he started nibbling at them.

After the crackers were all gone, Estelle directed him to lay down on the couch, his head in her lap, and she stroked his hair soothingly until he finally fell into a fitful slumber.

* * *

The next morning, Yuri was deemed well enough to rejoin the search effort. Instead of one of his usual shirts, Yuri pulled on a white button-down that was just slightly too big for him; it was meant for Flynn's broader shoulders and it smelled of the blond ever so faintly, despite having been washed since Flynn last wore it.

It was comforting and settled Yuri's nerves as he assured his friends that, yes, he was really okay and, no, he wouldn't keep neglecting his health. Estelle would drug his tea again if he did, after all.

By the afternoon, Yuri's stomach had tied itself back up in knots and he only finished his sandwich from lunch because Estelle was giving him a look that made him oddly nervous. He kept a very close watch on his tea.

Still, day four, and no sign of Flynn. In some ways, it would have been easier if Flynn had been kidnapped. Then there would be bad guys to fight. There was an element of... helplessness to Flynn just being missing that set Yuri on edge the way having a real, flesh and blood enemy to fight wouldn't.

Right as Yuri was about to take a break below decks to get away from the looks of worry and pity that kept glancing his way, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. There was a speck in the distance and Yuri gestured to it. "Is that and island?"

Judy pulled up her binoculars and peered through them. Nodding, she handed it over for Yuri to take a look. "You're right, Yuri. Good catch. Think it's worth checking out?"

It was too far away to make out any details on the island, other than it was small and green, but Yuri nodded anyway. He had a good feeling about it. "Would you ask Ba'ul to change course?"

"Already ahead of you," Judy told him; Yuri could feel the ship sway as the dragon began a slow turn.

Hanging onto the binoculars, Yuri watched the island hungrily as they approached it, the features of the small speck growing more clear as they came closer. It wasn't long before he could make out the sight of a beach. Then a small cliff became clear.

Finally, a wreck, the front end beached while the back end had been split open on the rocks beneath the cliff. It looked like and Imperial vessel and Yuri let out a loud exclamation of relief at the sight. A small encampment was just barely visible next to the wreck and...

"Yes! Those are Knights walking around the tents!"

Judy grinned at him and took back the binoculars while Estelle threw her arms around Yuri. "We've found him," Estelle told him. "You've found him."

Almost dizzy with relief, Yuri moved through the half-hour it took to reach the island and come ashore in a haze. He wanted to believe that Flynn was there. He wanted to believe that when he stepped off the ramp, Flynn would be there waiting for him on the beach.

He was terrified about what would happen if Flynn wasn't there.

Walking out onto the sand, Yuri scanned the faces of the Knights, looking for blond hair and blue eyes and a smile just for him...

"Hey, uh, Yuri Lowell, right?" one of the knights asked.

Nodding uncertainly, Yuri couldn't quite manage to speak.

"Commandant Flynn is back there," he gestured to one of the tents. "His leg's broken; he'd be out here otherwise."

"Thanks," Yuri told him and hurried for the tent, needing to see for himself. He pushed open the flap and walked in to see Flynn sitting there on a cot, leg splinted and a smile lighting up his face.

"They said a flying ship was arriving and I knew it had to be you," Flynn said, trying to get up and stopping only when Yuri sat down beside him.

"Wh-what happened?" Yuri asked, his voice holding an unfamiliar rasp.

Concern showed on Flynn's face and he reached up to cup Yuri's face in his hands. "Hey, I'm okay."

"Your leg's broken."

"It'll heal soon enough," Flynn kissed him gently. "I'm okay."

Hands shaking, Yuri took Flynn's hands from his face and clutched them to his chest, leaning forward to bury his face against Flynn's neck. "I thought I'd lost you," Yuri whispered as Flynn dropped a kiss on his forehead.

"The ship was damaged during the storm and our spirit markers all fired at once," Flynn told him, voice soothing. "Even using blastia, I've never traveled so fast; I was knocked into the bulkhead. When I woke up, my leg was broken and so was the ship."

"They said you were missing and I started looking for you immediately," Yuri murmured, releasing Flynn's hands in favor of clutching the blond's shirt. Almost instantly, Flynn's arms were wrapped around Yuri's waist. "I don't like it when nature's responsible for you being missing," he added. "No one for me to beat up."

Flynn laughed softly. "I know what you mean."

"Estelle drugged my tea yesterday," Yuri said, snuggling into Flynn's hold more comfortably and closing his eyes. Suddenly he felt exhausted... and safe. Warm and safe and... Flynn smelled wonderful.

"Yeah, she does that. You didn't know she does that?" Flynn teased, though he tensed slightly, tightening his hold on Yuri. "Are you okay? She only does that sort of thing when..."

"I'm okay now," Yuri promised, starting to doze off. "I have you, so I'm okay now."

* * *

"So, we're kind of a sad lot, aren't we?"

There was a fire in the fireplace, making the room was nice and toasty. Yuri and Flynn were both dressed in loose clothing from the hot springs in Yumanju, curled up on the couch together. Flynn had a few days off to recover and Yuri was taking time away from the guild.

"What do you mean?" Flynn asked.

"We're kind of co-dependent on each other."

"I prefer to call it being in love with each other," Flynn countered with a chuckle.

"That too," Yuri agreed. "I panicked when I heard you were missing. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep..."

"I know. I've been there myself," Flynn cut him off. "It's like I can't breathe when you're missing. Every time it gets harder."

"So what do we do?" Yuri asked.

"There's not a lot we can do." Flynn shrugged. "We can't exactly quit our jobs. Neither of us are ready to give up what we do. So... for now... all we can do is try to be careful."

"That sucks," Yuri muttered. Flynn was right, after all. Yuri loved his guild work... loved the thrill that came from the more dangerous mission, loved the travel, loved helping people. Flynn loved his own job every bit as much, utilizing his opportunity to change the Empire for the better to the fullest. Neither would willingly give up that part of their lives... so, eventually something like this would happen again.

"For now, yeah... it really does."

Hopefully next time there would be someone Yuri could beat up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While, the two of them are back together... it's not exactly a happy ending, is it? More melancholy, really. I was aiming for a much happier ending, but this is where it went instead. Not that the ending is bad... just, sort of sad.
> 
> Also, spirit markers are basically spirit artes that have been put into things to be used at a later date. They're sort of like blastia, but currently one use only and environmentally safe.


	24. Baking Mix

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri Lowell falls off a train and into Hell. Or, how a man from the 40s comes to own a bakery in 2015, all while looking suspiciously young.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Vesperia is Bamco's and Marvel is Disney's.  
> Inspiration – Imagining Yuri with the Winter Soldier's arm.

When they were kids, Flynn was always the faster, stronger one. But he got pneumonia when he was twelve and was never the same afterwards. Suddenly Yuri was the faster, stronger one. When Flynn refused to stop standing up for kids who were bullied and animals being mistreated, Yuri had to be the one who hit harder than the other guys, because Flynn couldn't.

Yuri got into more trouble for fighting after Flynn recovered from pneumonia than he ever did before. Flynn didn't really seem to appreciate all the times Yuri had to sweep in and save the day. He'd snap and yell that he didn't need Yuri to protect him all the time, only to apologize later, quiet and depressed as, slowly, it began to sink in that his lungs were never going to be the same again.

Even when Flynn began to accept his infirmity, he never stopped standing up against the bullies. Yuri could never bring himself to get mad about it all either. After all, Yuri couldn't stop standing up against them either.

When the war came, they were both old enough to enlist. So they did... or, rather, Yuri did. Flynn tried and tried and tried... and kept getting washed out. His body couldn't handle the strain and Flynn just wouldn't – couldn't – admit the truth.

" _There's no shame in doing other jobs, ya know."_

" _I know that, Yuri. But it's not right for me to sit here doing nothing compared to..."_

" _Compared to, what? Flynn, asking to do a job you can't handle doesn't make you brave, it makes you stupid. And refusing to do the jobs you can do – jobs that are really damned important to the war effort – just because they're not important the way you want them to be..."_

Yuri hadn't liked shipping out with that argument still between them. He liked it even less as he was taken prisoner by Hydra, strapped to a chair, and tortured for the sake of torture.

They never asked him any questions, but Yuri gave them his name, rank, and serial number just the same. Every time they injected him with something he'd tell him his name, rank, and serial number and then insult them in every language he knew. He came up with nicknames for his captors based on what insults made them react the most.

Then, near delirious from the pain and unclear on just how long they'd been experimenting on him, Yuri had the most peculiar hallucination.

It had to be a hallucination. Flynn was there, taller and buffer and healthy.

Flynn was rescuing him.

So, hallucination, then. But it was a nice hallucination. It included weird details like Flynn playing lab rat to a German scientist who'd defected to the allies and the leader of Hydra being a man named Alexei who, as it so happened, had similar experiments done to himself, only instead of being really handsome and buff like Flynn, Alexei's skin peeled off to reveal the unnatural appearance of a monster beneath.

Red Skull.

But, despite the weirdness, the hallucination let Yuri experience things like blowing up the facility and leaving with Flynn to catch up to the other escapees, all walking in the direction of temporary safety at the nearest Allied base.

Then Yuri woke up the next morning. The base was still blown up, he was still rescued, and Flynn was still ridiculously buff.

Clearly Yuri needed to sit down and have a long talk with his best friend about concepts like 'self preservation' and 'self worth' and 'not volunteering for dangerous, life threatening experiments'. There were words for idiots like Flynn and none of them were polite.

Despite the ensuing argument, Yuri signed up for Flynn's special squad, the Howling Commandos. Mostly because someone had to make sure Flynn didn't get himself killed. Besides, having Flynn around helped make the nightmares not so bad... made it easier to remember when he woke up that this was reality, not the horrifying moments between falling asleep and waking when he'd be strapped back in that chair while god-knows-what was pumped into his veins by 'Insults-to-Mother' and 'Anything-French.'

The train job, however, was where what little good Yuri could find in the midst of the war was ripped from him, along with his right arm.

Mostly, Yuri remembers the lead up to the job.

" _This is payback for Coney Island?" Yuri asked, half-joking and half-queasy from the height. Flynn just grinned brightly and laughed._

He remembers landing on the train, but not the fight that must of ensued. If he concentrates hard enough, Yuri can remember bits and pieces of shooting at someone and throwing Flynn's shield with as much precision as Captain America himself and then... then he's holding on to the train with his right hand and reaching for Flynn with his left...

Yuri wonders if falling is what flying feels like when there's no airplane involved.

* * *

When Yuri wakes the first time, he's in a cell with his right arm missing from the shoulder down. He can still feel it, through the pain, but it's not there, not really, and he winds up passing out. Too much, too soon.

The second time Yuri wakes up, he's strapped to a table and two unfamiliar men are standing over him, tinkering with a metal... thing where Yuri's arm should have been. They remind him of 'Insults-to-Mother' and 'Anything-French,' though they're Russian, not German, and Yuri puts his rusty Russian skills to use, wishing his grandmother had been able to teach him more before she died. He doesn't understand much of what they say, but... what he does understand scares him.

When they flip something on in the metal thing attached to him and the pain starts, right before passing out again, Yuri screams for Flynn, begging his friend to come save him again.

Yuri looses count of how many times he wakes up, slowly learning to utilize the painful prosthesis attached to his arm. Flynn never comes. Yuri learns to be an even better marksman than he already was... learns to speak Russian like a native... slowly forgets his past because it's easier to be a clean slate than take the constant, painful onslaught of their regimen of electricity and injections...

Flynn never comes, but Yuri still forgets his own name before he ever forgets Flynn's.

* * *

Her name is Judith Hermes. She's in the Black Widow program, the best of the candidates, and the Winter Soldier has been assigned to train her.

"What's your name?" she asks, leaning forward to show off a little more cleavage. Her voice is low and lilting, seductive.

"I'm the Soldier," he informs her. "I don't have a use for names."

She frowns thoughtfully and then shrugs. "I will think of a name for you," she assures him, as if he'd care. Then Judith reaches over and tucks an errant strand of hair behind the Soldier's ear.

_Flynn tucked the long hair behind Yuri's ear. "You need a trim," Flynn told him, his hand dropping away. "How can you see with your hair in your face like that?"_

" _If I enlist, I'll need more than a trim," Yuri sighed, already mourning the inevitable loss of his long locks. "I'll have to cut it as short as yours."_

The soldier frowned and stepped away from the girl, wondering what that was all about... and who the blond man had been.

He'd seemed important.

* * *

Judith tries out a different name every time she sees the Soldier.

"Today... today, I think... Yuri," she decides.

He flinches, not really understanding why, but Judith's eyes widen at the sight.

"That name... is important to you?" she guessed.

The Soldier shrugs, feigning indifference, but... the name feels important.

"I think I will only call you Yuri from now on." Judith smiles and nods and then they fight.

* * *

"They... they had me kill a little..." Judith's voice stutters to a pained halt and finally, she says, "Yuri, please... help me. I must leave. We must leave."

The Soldier... Yuri... nods. Judith had to kill children as part of her most recent assignment. Though he knows he's done it before himself, the idea of her having to do it sends revulsion through him and he wonders if he'd be able to complete such a mission himself anymore.

He doubts he could.

"Do you trust me?" He asks her, quiet.

"Always."

* * *

It would have been safer to split up from her, Yuri knows, but he can't bear to let Judith out of his sight. She's all he knows in this world and he loves her, to at least some degree. He's not in love with her – he's not sure he even knows what that means – but together they can keep the darkness at bay.

They sell their skills to the highest bidder, taking only the contracts their comfortable with. Yuri's not really sure what they're doing is much better than what they left behind, but... he's such a mystery to himself that he'd rather let Judy call the shots for now.

At least they'll never have to kill another child. Not so long as they're free.

* * *

Judy takes a bullet to the gut and Yuri just knows he's going to lose her. So he turns to the other man pinned down with them and says, "if I can provide a distraction, will you get free and save her?"

The man's eyes widen and he nods. Yuri drags him over and has him apply pressure to the wound. "If she dies, you die too," he warns him, then runs off, drawing fire off from the other two.

Everything after that is a blur, but when he's done the people responsible for shooting Judy are dead. Judith and the man Yuri left her with are gone, and there's so much blood on Yuri's hands that he doesn't know how he'll ever get clean.

He heads back to the apartment he and Judy had been squatting in. It's compromised, but he's got no where else to go and maybe... maybe Judy will know to find him here.

Instead, the next morning the man who took Judith away shows up, nervous and armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows, of all the damnedest things.

Yuri lets him in with a severe frown. "What's her status?"

"Stable. She came out of surgery late last night. It was a near thing, but she's gonna be okay." Hesitantly the man added, "she woke up long enough to give us this address."

"Good. Who are you, anyway?" Yuri demanded, hating having to trust someone with Judith's life without even knowing who he was.

"Agent Raven Schwann, of SHIELD."

Yuri hums thoughtfully. "American?" he asks. SHIELD showed up on his radar a few times as the Winter Soldier, but he was fuzzy on the details.

"Yeah. UN charter, but mostly American run," Raven agrees. "Look, I'm supposed to take you in, but I'm pretty sure you could kill me with a paperclip, after seeing what you and that arm of yours did yesterday. I know you probably hear this from all the super spy agencies, but we're the good guys and we'd like you on our side..."

"If I go with you," Yuri interrupts, "can I see Judy?"

"Uh... yeah?"

"Then lead the way," Yuri tells him. He hopes that SHIELD is all Raven seems to think it is, but Yuri doubts it. There's no such thing as good, in Yuri's limited experience. Just shades of gray.

* * *

Yuri sits there in the infirmary, holding Judy's hand and telling her stories in Russian while. She's in a medical coma at the moment, but he's been promised they'll bring her out of it as soon as its safe. So, until then, he speaks to her softly and pretends that he isn't listening as the doctors and guards gossip.

" _Calls himself Yuri. Even looks like him, I swear..."_

" _Winter Soldier program. Apparently they took enemy soldiers and brainwashed them to be their own assassins. The program's extreme measures killed all but one of the candidates."_

" _Judith Hermes, former Black Widow. Her training began when she was still only five years old..."_

" _Do you think its possible for SHIELD to rehabilitate them? I'm not sure either of them can be held totally accountable for their actions... they'd need to be deprogrammed and we need to know for sure if he's..."_

"I promise you," Yuri murmured to Judith, "if we aren't safe here, we'll find a way to run again."

* * *

"Yuri Lowell."

Staring into the mirror, Yuri waited for recognition to set in. Nothing sparked, no memories unlocked. The name was familiar, but then that wasn't really anything he hadn't already known. After all, that was why Judy had been calling him Yuri for so long.

SHIELD had given Yuri a folder filled with information on Yuri Lowell because they were certain he was the same man. Apparently, he'd been Captain America's best friend and most trusted ally.

Yuri had seen the comic books, well a few of them anyway. In the comics, Captain America's best friend was a lanky kid too young to be in the war who emotionally manipulated the Captain into letting him come along on all the adventures. Comics were supposed to be escape fantasies for kids, after all, so what does it matter if the story depicts an American Hero subjecting a child to the horrors of war. Suffice it to say, the comics were not high on Yuri's list of great literature; hopefully the real Captain America was better than that.

Sighing to himself, Yuri tried saying his name one more time. "Yuri Lowell." Nope, nada, zip, zilch. "Still nothing," he grumbled and finally flipped open the folder on Sergeant Yuri Lowell.

There was a picture paper-clipped to the inside of the folder. There were two men, one unmistakably Yuri himself. His hair was shorter and his eyes younger, a wide smile on his face as he gazed at the man standing beside him.

Swallowing in sudden nervousness, Yuri reached out and tentatively brushed a finger gently against the blond man's face. Grief welled up inside him for everything he'd forgotten about this man and the knowledge that he'd never see him again. Captain America was dead, after all.

"Flynn..." Yuri whispered, and the dam broke.

* * *

Judy wasn't ready to quit the spy business. Yuri was.

So while Judy became Raven's new partner and the two gallivanted around the world doing who knew what for SHIELD, Yuri went back to Brooklyn.

He spent time standing in front of the building where he and Flynn used to live. It was still there, but renovated to the point where Yuri wouldn't have recognized it if not for the street corner being the same. The cafe where they used to get lunch was now an ice cream parlor. The ice cream parlor where they used to get root beer floats was now a cafe.

Sliding into a booth at the cafe, Yuri smiled blandly at the girl who brought him the lunch menu and started glancing through the options while ordering a root beer. Some things ought to remain the same, after all, or at least as close as he could get without the ice cream to go with it.

While the waitress was off filling his drink order, a young woman with short brown hair and a pair of goggles pushed up like a hairband, settled across from him at the booth.

"I'm Rita Mordio," she said. "You are Yuri Lowell. My father, Eric Mordio, worked with you and Flynn Scifo during the war." She paused and then added, "I run Mordio Enterprises now, so if you need anything..." she shrugged.

"How did you even know I was around?"

Rita smirked, shark-like, and flagged the waitress for some water and a menu of her own. "I keep tabs on SHIELD."

Yuri regarded Rita thoughtfully for a long moment. "Do you know what happened to the rest of the Howling Commandos? If any of them are still around... I don't know if I want to see them, but I'd like the option."

"Yeah, I know where they are. I know where the graves all are too, if you'd like to pay your respects to the ones who aren't around?"

"I'd like that." Rita looked a lot like her father. "I take it Eric isn't around anymore?"

"No. My parents died in a car accident when I was eleven." Rita shrugged, adding, "they were gone most of the time and never knew what to do with a girl who liked building bicycles and learning about engines than about keeping my dresses clean."

It didn't surprise him. Yuri hadn't been fond of Eric and that was before he'd found out about the man's klepto tendencies. "Flynn knew him better than I did," Yuri finally demurred and Rita took that as sign that he'd rather not start his grave visiting with her father.

She seemed a lot more amiable after that, and willing to personally escort him around. He rather had the impression that if he had known Eric well and, worse, actually liked the man, then Rita would have foisted him off on an employee and satisfied herself with having done her duty to a family friend.

By the end of lunch, Yuri found himself sharing some of the more bizarre stories about his childhood with Flynn and feeling, for the first time since he was made into the Winter Soldier, like maybe he was still a real person after all.

* * *

Rita decided, about halfway through their trip across the states on what Yuri called the Howling Commando Tour, that Yuri's greatest gift was his ability to make bad coffee drinkable. He told her that his ability to make inedible food edible was a self-defense skill he'd picked up in response to Flynn's ability to make edible food inedible. He'd never suspected the skill extended itself to coffee-house chains, if only because Starbucks hadn't yet invented time travel in order to invade the forties, yet.

Not of course, that he'd know the difference when they did.

"A bakery?" Rita sounded incredulous and Yuri just shrugged in response, taking another sip of his coffee. Seeing that she wasn't going to get an answer yet, Rita tentatively picked up a piece of fudge – peanut butter & butterscotch fudge, to be exact – and took a bite.

Rita made a humming noise of contentment, eyes flickering closed even as she sat up straighter. Setting down the fudge, she snatched a brownie and tried that too.

"Oh my god, that is amazing."

Yuri smirked, still not saying a word.

Rita sighed and clutched her plate of goodies a little closer. "All right. You want to start a bakery, I'll be your investor."

* * *

Since Yuri could not bake and run the counter at the same time, he hired a couple of local college students – Estelle and Karol – to help out.

"You know, Rita, I can't help but notice that when you visit, you're more likely to spend time with me if Estelle isn't here to distract you," Yuri teased.

"I don't know what you mean," Rita denied, flushing and looking away.

"Sure you don't," Yuri agreed in amusement. "You'd better ask her out before someone else gets around to it. She's adorable, after all. Other people are bound to notice."

"Uh..." Rita floundered for a moment and then zeroed in on Yuri's wince. "What's wrong?"

There was no point in lying to the girl, so Yuri admitted, "my arm has been bothering me lately."

"Let me see." Rita arched an eyebrow expectantly.

Yuri held out his mechanical arm and rolled up the sleeve of his shirt. "I think something is starting to short out."

"How... how did you get this arm, anyway?" Rita asked hesitantly, prying open the casing on his upper arm and poking around. He'd let her look it over once before, but she'd never asked how he'd gotten it until now. He'd figured she already knew the gist of it from her time spent hacking SHIELD, but was simply polite enough not to say anything before.

"While I was... in Hydra's custody in Russia, it was one of their experiments." Yuri went still, looking stiffly ahead. "It didn't really make up for all the things they took away from me."

"I think I can fix this, but I'll need you to come back to my lab," Rita told him, shutting the casing. "One of the wires is stripped and needs to be replaced. I could make you a new one, if you'd like?"

"I new arm?" Yuri echoed, to be sure. When Rita nodded, Yuri frowned thoughtfully. "I don't suppose you could make it lighter than this one?"

"Yes."

Yuri smiled and nodded. "Then, yes, I'd like a new arm." He paused and then added, "don't think I didn't notice the topic shift, Rita. I still think that you and Estelle would make a cute couple."

Rita sighed and stole a piece of pumpkin fudge off of Yuri's plate. "If it'll shut you up, then fine, I'll ask her out. I wouldn't think a guy from the forties would notice two girls making eyes at each other," she grumbled.

"Yeah, well, this guy from the forties is bi or pan or whatever the term is for thinking gender and sex matter less than personality," Yuri shot back in amusement. "So, yeah, I notice when people are 'making eyes' at each other. Also, 'making eyes'? Really, Rita?"

"Oh shut up."

* * *

Judy and Raven slunk into the cafe and took over a corner table, as was usual when they got back from a mission. Yuri put together their normal orders – coffee and a white chocolate chip macadamia cookie for Raven and a hot chocolate and caramel cheesecake slice for Judy – and brought it over to their table.

The looks on their faces, however, were unusually solemn.

"Yuri," Judy said quietly, pushing out a chair. "There's something I need to tell you. You... you'll want to sit down for this."

Frowning, Yuri sat down. "Judy, what's wrong?"

Judy exchanged a look with Raven, who answered in her stead. "SHIELD has located Captain Scifo's plane in the Arctic."

Yuri felt himself go pale. Judy put her hot chocolate into his hands and made him drink. "And... Flynn? When he... when he died..."

"He isn't," Raven interjected, elaborating upon seeing Yuri's confusion, "he isn't dead. The serum altered his physiology enough that being buried in ice basically acted as a natural cryogenics. He's still being chipped out of the ice, but medics are convinced he's still alive and that as long as they go slow in defrosting him, he'll wake up just fine."

Yuri closed up the bakery early that day.

* * *

Rita threw a towel in Yuri's face and then glanced back at the door where Estelle was hovering, ready for their date.

"What was that for?!"

"You need to sleep. When Flynn gets back, you don't want to pass out the first time you see him just because you're sleep deprived. He'd never let you live it down. Also," Rita edged towards the doorway, "you need to come by my place tomorrow. I've got the new arm ready for you to try out."

"I'll be there," Yuri agreed.

"Bright eyed and bushy tailed!" Rita called back menacingly, "if your eyes look more sleep bruised instead of less, I reserve the right to sick Estelle on you."

"It's too late for that," Yuri complained, "you should have heard her mother henning me during her shift this morning."

"I could always step it up a notch," Estelle contributed sweetly.

"I'll sleep. I swear, I'll sleep."

* * *

For the last three days, every time a blond man came into the cafe (not counting regulars, of course) while Karol was on duty would cause the kid to excitedly summon Yuri to the front to verify whether the person was Flynn or not. So far today they'd had Estelle's cousin Ioder, a guy named Guy, some long haired man called Mithos (who had a major sister complex, judging by his half of a phone conversation that he had very loudly, and rudely, while clearly expecting everyone else to act like they couldn't hear him), and Richard (also long haired, but actually a SHIELD agent, whom Raven and Judy had been raving about Yuri's place too).

So when Karol summoned Yuri forth again, he wasn't expecting to see the familiar combination of blond hair and blue eyes that was Flynn Scifo. He most definitely wasn't expecting the kiss. Not, of course, that Yuri had any intention of complaining.

* * *

When a couple of idiots try to hold up the bakery for all its cash and baked goods, Yuri is pissed but keeps himself under control.

Then there's a gun pointed at Estelle and Yuri just...

He doesn't take that well.

The next thing he's really aware of are the thugs unconscious, and very battered, and Estelle's hand, hesitant and calming, on Yuri's left shoulder.

"It's okay now, Yuri. They won't try to hurt me any more."

Oh fuck...

* * *

"Okay, first of all? You didn't kill them," Rita informs Yuri, having walked into his apartment without knocking first.

Though he never gave her a key, Yuri has no doubt that she's made herself one at some point and possibly given a copy to Judy. Judy, however, breaks in through the window when she wants inside uninvited, so Yuri's not a hundred percent sure on that last part.

"Secondly, Estelle isn't afraid of you. She was justifiably freaked out that a guy pointed a gun in her face, but fortunately her boss is bad ass. Also, she'd be here, but someone has to bake things when you don't and apparently I'm only just hearing about Karol setting fire to dish towels. You need to hire more help, by the way. What about that high school girl who thinks she's a pirate?"

Yuri snorted in amusement, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.

Flynn poked his head in through the open door. "Is it alright if I come in?" he asked, understandably worried given the last time they'd talked, it was right after Yuri had given the police his statement and he might have told Flynn he was too dangerous for the blond to be around.

For anyone to be around.

"Both of you should leave." Yuri sighed, knowing that Rita wasn't going to respect that.

"Bullshit," she says, rather predictably. "Let me repeat, Yuri, you did not kill them. I realize that you sort of... blacked out a bit?"

"Are you hacking SHIELD again?" Yuri interrupted; he'd only mentioned that to the cops and his SHIELD therapist, though Estelle had probably worked it out herself and told Rita. Still, Rita really ought to stop hacking SHIELD and Yuri tended to bring that up whether or not he actually thought she'd found something out that way.

"No. Maybe... which answer are you most likely to believe?"

"You've been hacking SHIELD again," Yuri grumbled, slumping onto his couch.

Flynn seemed to take all of this as an invitation to ignore Yuri's request that they go away and come all the way inside, shutting the door behind him. Quietly, he went into the kitchen and started setting up the kettle for tea.

"You saved Estelle's life. My girlfriend was in danger while I was out doing my Iron Woman thing half the world away, but you were there and you saved her. So, no I'm not going to leave. I'm not going to let you wallow in self-pity. You are not a monster; you are not the Winter Soldier anymore."

"That part of me is never going to be gone," Yuri tells her – tells Flynn, too.

Flynn leaves the kitchen and settles on to the couch beside Yuri. "I know. But how you use it is up to you. That's why Estelle is safe and those men are going to jail, not a funeral home. Because you're better than what Hydra did to you."

Yuri reluctantly lets himself lean against Flynn, who immediately wraps his arms around Yuri's shoulders and presses a kiss to Yuri's forehead.

"I love you," Flynn murmurs softly against Yuri's hair.

Naturally, this is when the window pops open and Judy climbs inside, Raven close behind and griping about how much faster they'd have arrived if they had taken then elevator inside and walked through the door instead of climbing the fire escape. Yuri's not sure what he's done to deserve all these people in his life, but... he's planning on holding on to it all.

Yuri has no idea if he's a good man or not, but he gets the feeling that pushing them all away out of fear of himself would just be letting Hydra win. Yuri hates the idea of letting Hydra win.

* * *

When the Chitauri invasion occurs, Yuri insists on joining Flynn's little Avenger club in kicking alien ass. This time Yuri's got enough of a handle on himself that he doesn't black out during the fight despite all the times he sees Flynn in danger; this time, Yuri's in control of his Winter Soldier training, not the other way around.

It's still hard not to worry, though. Flynn's never seen Yuri fight since waking up from his icy sleep, though he's held Yuri on the nights when his memories turn his dreams into horror stories. Yuri knows his style of fighting still holds the brutal efficiency of the Winter Soldier and he'll never truly be able to shed that. Nor does he want to, now that he can use that training to protect instead of kill. That doesn't stop him from being a little afraid that this differences in him will one day scare Flynn away.

Flynn, however, is most definitely not scared, judging by the way he kissed Yuri once the battle was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Superhero remix up next.


	25. Baking Mix (Superhero Remix)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Flynn woke up seventy years too late, he never thought he'd get a second chance with his supposedly dead best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Vesperia is Bamco's and Marvel is Disney's.  
> Inspiration – Imagining Flynn in a Captain America outfit

When Flynn and Yuri were kids, Flynn was the one who was faster and stronger. He'd thought that was how it was always gonna be. Flynn didn't bank on a terrible bout of pneumonia weakening his lungs or bronchitis a year later making that weakness worse.

He wasn't prepared for Yuri to take his place; he didn't know how to deal with his old limits being overridden. He didn't like having to stop in the middle of gym to gasp for breath or for Yuri to swoop in to save him when he failed at blocking fists to the face.

It only gets worse when Yuri can enlist in the army and Flynn can't. Flynn tries and tries to make it in, but even though the health standards for enlistment are a little more lax in time of war – the need for soldiers is too high to let only those at their peak in – he gets drummed out every time. Flynn feels terrible every time he lies about his name and worse every time its for naught.

But what makes Flynn really feel like a failure – like a hypocrite – is when Yuri, on his last free night before shipping out, calls him out on his bullshit.

" _There's no shame in doing other jobs, ya know."_

" _I know that, Yuri. But it's not right for me to sit here doing nothing compared to..."_

" _Compared to, what? Flynn, asking to do a job you can't handle doesn't make you brave, it makes you stupid. And refusing to do the jobs you can do – jobs that are really damned important to the war effort – just because they're not important the way you want them to be..."_

Flynn had punched Yuri in the mouth for that. The letters they exchanged afterwards were stilted; the distance between them far more than the hundreds of miles between the United States and the European front. It was with reluctance that Flynn finally took up a job as a propaganda artist. His art helped bring in war bonds and Yuri was right, it was work that needed to be done as much as any other.

Still, Flynn felt like, compared to Yuri who was out there risking his life, staying behind made him a coward. He couldn't help like feeling he should be there at Yuri's side... like no one else was capable of having Yuri's back like Flynn could. It wasn't all misplaced pride, arrogance, and patriotism, though he was sure Yuri thought it was. Well, pride and arrogance, perhaps. What Yuri needed was someone healthy to have his back and Flynn hated to admit that would never, ever be him.

So Flynn turned back to his art and tried to convince himself that what he was doing was enough.

* * *

"You know, I see you around here all the time, but I do not know you're name," the German scientist said, admiring the sketch book open to a picture of Yuri.

The picture is from memory, of the first time Flynn saw Yuri with his hair cut short and his uniform on. Yuri looked good, but Flynn had longed for Yuri's hair to spontaneously return to its previous length. Flynn had loved running his fingers through Yuri's hair, stroking the shiny locks and feeling the softness of the strands...

Flynn might be a little in love with Yuri. He's not sure and he hates that the war took Yuri away before he could figure it out.

"I'm Flynn... Flynn Scifo." He smiles hesitantly, trying to keep his mind off of Yuri, and offers a handshake to the scientist.

The other man accepted the handshake with a warm smile. "I am Dr. Erskine. I hope my admiration of your art does not bother you."

"No, it doesn't," Flynn gestured for him to take a look. "Feel free to flip through the pages if you like."

"Thank you."

Erskine picked up the sketch book and moved to the first page, slowly working his way through the pages as they chatted. Erskine told Flynn about Germany and why he left before the war officially broke out, about his work with Dr. Alexei Dinoia and the founding of Hydra. In return, Flynn found himself talking about Yuri, his most frequent model in his sketches for all that Yuri was an ocean away.

Somehow, Flynn found himself confessing about the fight he'd had with Yuri before his friend shipped out without him.

"He was right, though. I think that's what made me so angry. If he'd been wrong, if I'd really had a chance of enlisting..." Flynn sighed and shook his head. "If he'd been wrong, I would have enlisted first try and we'd have never had the argument to begin with. Instead... instead I was making an ass of myself trying join up. I mean... what if they'd passed me through and I'd gotten someone else killed because I'm not actually fit enough for duty. What if..."

"What if you'd gotten your friend killed?" Erskine finished for him.

"Yeah..."

"Yet, despite all that, you still feel strongly about fighting in this war? Why is that?" Erskine wondered. "I am sorry, that was just... rhetorical. Thinking aloud. You need not answer if you do not wish to."

"It's fine, really, "Flynn assured him. "I just... I don't like bullies. They pick on people weaker than themselves to make them feel better about their own weaknesses and... I guess I've always wanted to be able to stop bullies from doing that. I used to be good at it, before I got sick. Never recovered all the way, I guess, but I couldn't give up trying to stop bullies. Drove Yuri up a wall, but he always had my back no matter how much I frustrated him."

Erskine handed Flynn back his sketchbook. "Will you meet me here tomorrow morning, Flynn? I think there is something you might be able to help me with in my research. I have been looking for someone with the... right disposition to assist in moving the research into testing and that you are the perfect candidate."

* * *

Flynn probably should have backed out when he found out what Erskine's testing phase entailed. Instead, Flynn got into what looked like a metal coffin, okayed the injection of drugs he didn't really understand, and told Erskine's technician – an Eric Mordio – to keep the vita rays going even though the pain of the transition was overwhelming.

When the haze in his mind cleared and Flynn stepped out of the coffin, he really did feel reborn. He was tall – at least as tall as Yuri – and he could feel the strength in his arms again. His legs felt amazing, like he could run for miles. Breathing hadn't felt so easy and effortless in a long time.

Then a shot rang out and a hole appeared in the middle of Dr. Erskine's forehead.

* * *

He was a super soldier meant to be leading the fight against the Nazis and instead he was dancing before audiences at fund raisers. It was a step up from the propaganda art, Flynn supposed. Still, he had never felt more useless. At least before he knew, deep down, that he'd never be able to keep up with the other soldiers. But now he knew the problem was more likely to be the other way around.

Flynn could help and he wanted to help. He wanted to fight.

Instead he was still raising war bonds. It was important work. Flynn just had to keep reminding himself of that.

* * *

Yuri Lowell was listed as MIA, presumed dead. Flynn dressed in his uniform on autopilot and then went to beg Eric Mordio to help him do a parachute drop into enemy territory, in the region where Yuri's division was most likely to have been taken as prisoners.

The whole thing was a blur, really, his senses not kicking into gear until he was pulling his chute like he'd done it a thousand times before.

Landing on the ground, Flynn hid the chute, got his bearings, and then walked for miles with only his heart, and the memory of the map in the General's office, to guide him.

* * *

"Yuri Lowell. Sergeant. Three-two-five-five-seven-zero-eight-three."

Flynn freezes at the sound of Yuri's voice, rough and rasping. The raven-haired man is clearly out of it and when Flynn manages to move again it's only because he can't stand the sight of Yuri's head lolling from side to side in the grips of whatever nightmare formula he's been injected with.

"Yuri?" Flynn says quietly, gently shaking his friend's shoulder. "Wake up," he adds insistently, already reaching with his free hand to undo Yuri's restraints.

"Yuri Lowell," is the fevered reply. "Sergeant."

"Yuri, it's Flynn."

That get's Yuri's attention and his eyes blink open to reveal the dark violet irises that look glassy and drugged. He focuses with effort on Flynn and then frowns. "You're not here," Yuri decides almost immediately. "You're back in the states. You're safe. You're also... not this... tall. Or buff. Really, really... buff." Yuri's eyebrows furrow in concentration as he looked Flynn up and down.

This would have been hilarious if Yuri had been drunk, not drugged, and they were at a bar or a pub or someplace safe, compared to, say, the Hydra facility they're currently in.

"I really am here," Flynn insisted, guiding Yuri into standing up and leaning on him. "I really am taller and healthier too."

"How?" was the suspicious and disbelieving response.

"Oh, you know, ate my vegetables, worked on breathing exercises, volunteered to test out a super soldier serum for a German scientist who defected to our side..." Flynn trailed off at Yuri's incredulous look.

"Okay, now I know this is a hallucination 'cause Flynn couldn't be that stupid."

Flynn winced. "I'm not sure how to argue that point without insulting myself," he admitted.

As Flynn tried to navigate their way out of the building the same way he came in, Yuri seemed to grow more coherent and aware of their circumstances. That was fortunate because Alexei, Erskine's deranged ex-lab partner, made an appearance. He cheerfully announced that he, too, had undergone the super soldier process and wanted to know why Flynn was special.

"I'm not," Flynn told him, enjoying the look of rage that crept across Alexei's face as he spoke, "I'm just a kid from Brooklyn."

Then Alexei pulled his face off and about the only thing that stopped Flynn from freaking out was Yuri's muttered, "weirdest hallucination ever. Also, Flynn, please tell me that your skin isn't optional like his is? You can work the skinny kid look and the buff war hero look, but skinless muscle man is just... no one can work that."

"My skin is definitely not optional," Flynn assured him in a quiet undertone.

"Thank god."

At any rate, the two of them got away from 'Red Skull' and regrouped with the other escapees that Flynn had rescued earlier. Yuri couldn't keep going, exhausted from his ordeal, and so everyone bunked down for the night, with those who were able to keep shifts doing so.

Yuri fell asleep still convinced the whole thing was a bizarre dream and that he'd wake up being interrogated by people he referred to as 'Insults-to-Mother' and 'Anything-French.' Flynn had absolutely no idea what to make of that.

When Yuri woke up, however, Flynn knew that Yuri knew that none of the night before was a hallucination. He knew that because... well...

"So, this is real, then?" Yuri waited for Flynn to nod. "Well then. Let me be the first to say that you are a complete and utter moron. Letting some doctor use a super soldier serum that in previous tests made skin optional? Stupidest thing you've ever done. Ever. Though the solo rescue mission? Definitely a close second."

Flynn couldn't help the laughter that spilled out of him at the sound of Yuri's continuing tirade. Whatever may have been done to him, Yuri was still Yuri. Flynn had never felt more relieved.

* * *

Everything was going fine.

" _This is payback for Coney Island?" Yuri asked, looking a little green even as he steadied his hold on the zip line._

_Flynn thought for a moment of the horrible spinning tea cup ride that he'd gone on with Yuri one summer when they were still kids. It wouldn't have been so bad, except Yuri gleefully spun them around until Flynn was so dizzy that he hurled into a trashcan after stumbling off the ride. Somehow the memory was a lot funnier now than it was then and Flynn snickered at the thought of getting a little genuine revenge at some point._

In an instant, everything changed.

_Flynn reached out to grab Yuri's free hand and drag him back inside the train. Their fingertips just barely touched... and then the train jolted. Yuri's eyes widened even as his grip on the broken door faltered._

" _YURI!"_

_As his best friend fell away into the blinding snow below, all Flynn could think was that he'd just lost his most important reason for fighting._

Later, after he crashed his plane into the arctic and the freezing weather slowly lulled him into a false sleep, Flynn couldn't help but smile. Surely he'd be with Yuri again soon.

* * *

Waking up was a surreal let down.

The ball game on the radio was wrong. Flynn remembered being there with Yuri and his gut churned with grief even as he fought his way free and out onto the street.

"I'm sorry," a gruff old man with shock-white hair and a scar across his face. "I didn't think that was the best way for you to wake up, but the Docs overruled me. I'm Don Whitehorse, Director of SHIELD. I'm afraid it's been a long time since you were last awake."

"That's kind of obvious," Flynn agrees, letting the man – Don Whitehorse – escort him back to the sidewalk. The cars are all wrong, the lights are off, and there are signs that are constantly changing. The last ones, the signs, remind Flynn of computer screens... if the clarity were better and they were capable of using colors instead of just black and white.

"It's the year 2015, Cap," Don Whitehorse tells him.

"Seventy years," Flynn murmurs. A rounded number, because if he has to think of the exact number of years he's... skipped over, like some sort of bizarre Rip Van Winkle... and all the years he still has to live before he'll finally get to be with Yuri again...

Well, Flynn might go a little crazy regardless, actually. How is he supposed to adjust to this new century without Yuri there with him?

* * *

When Flynn is escorted into a bakery by a very insistent lady assassin called Judy and a guy who thinks a bow counts as a sniper weapon, Flynn's pretty sure his day cannot get weirder.

Then the kid behind the counter turns to yell through the door to the kitchen, "YURI! I really think its him this time!"

Flynn feels like time itself stops as Yuri – his Yuri – steps out through the door and they just stare at each other.

One of Yuri's arms has been replaced with a metal one and his eyes look so old, but his hair is long and tied up into a pony tail and the smile on his face is the most beautiful thing Flynn has seen in decades.

If Flynn just so happened to walk up to Yuri and kiss him right on the lips... well, he's not exactly going to complain about the outcome. The patrons, and the kid working the counter, seemed rather approving in their cheering the two on, so it seemed no one else was going to complain either.

* * *

When aliens came to invade the Earth, Flynn got to see the results of Yuri's time as the Winter Soldier up close as Yuri brutally, and efficiently, cut a swath through the invaders. It was terrifying and Yuri was clearly worried that seeing for himself the way Yuri got while fighting would ruin everything.

So Flynn kissed Yuri, in the aftermath when they were surrounded by dead aliens and exhausted team mates. Seemed like the easiest way to convey the sentiment 'I love you no matter what' while simultaneously preventing any of the self-flagellation Yuri engaged in when his time as a brainwashed asset of Hydra came up.

Rita might have flipped up the face mask of her Iron Woman costume and told them to get a room, but Flynn wasn't really paying attention to her at that point. Perhaps not fair, seeing as she'd just nearly died redirecting a nuke to hit the aliens on the other side of the portal the aliens had been using to invade, but if Flynn had to choose between listening to Rita and kissing Yuri... well...


	26. Pajama Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – It's all Bamco's baby. I just ship the slash.
> 
> Inspiration – Pajamas
> 
> A/N - The story snippets aren't really meant to fit into any coherent time-line. Just lots of cuteness.

_**Early Morning** _

Yuri woke up to the sound of Karol opening the door to the room. Flynn made a grumbling noise and buried himself further into the pillows.

"You guys ready for breakfast and then to head out?" Karol asked.

Yuri sat up, planning to answer affirmatively, when Flynn sat up beside him, wrapped his arms around Yuri's shoulders, and then flopped back down, pulling the raven-haired man back into the sheets with him.

"Go away, we're sleeping," Flynn declared, snuggling back in and nuzzling against Yuri's neck.

"Apparently I'm a pillow," Yuri told Karol with a laugh. "Go on, let the others know we'll be a while, okay?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." Karol sounded a little confused as he left the room.

"Go back to sleep," Flynn mumbled.

The little puffs of Flynn's breath against Yuri's neck sent pleasant tingles down his body, but for now Yuri just slipped his arms around Flynn's waist and press a gentle kiss against the blond's temple. "Love you," he murmured, letting his eyes slip shut again.

It wouldn't hurt to sleep in a little while longer.

_**Sleep 'Till Noon** _

Yuri woke up to sun peeking through the windows and a hand down the front of his stretchy pajama bottoms.

"Flynn..." Yuri moaned and pressed up against that hand, seeking more pleasure.

"Morning, Yuri," Flynn said, then pulled the raven-haired man into a deep kiss, divesting Yuri of his sleep pants entirely somewhere along the way.

"Aren't we… aren't we supposed to be meeting..." Yuri trailed off, finding it difficult to think coherently, never mind form sentences, when Flynn's mouth trailed southward, making non-verbal promises concerning his destination.

"If we wind up a little late, we'll just tell them our alarm didn't go off and we accidentally slept until noon," Flynn said, looking up at Yuri with a combination of wicked mischief and guileless innocence that should have been ridiculous but was somehow erotic instead.

"Sounds good to me," Yuri agreed. Anything to get Flynn to finish what he'd started.

_**Late Evening** _

Yuri had just enough energy when he got to Flynn's rooms to change into his soft pajamas and then stumble into bed.

He woke, sort of, when Flynn arrived an hour or so later and tucked him in. He dozed as Flynn went through his nightly routine and then slipped into bed beside his lover.

Shifting just enough to be snuggled against Flynn's side, Yuri sighed softly and, buoyed by Flynn's warm presence, slid back into a deep sleep.

_**Midnight** _

Yuri had a brilliant idea for their anniversary night.

He, unfortunately, hadn't managed to arrive in Zaphias until around late afternoon and Flynn had meetings until late. So Yuri pulled together an indoor picnic, set up a little table in Flynn's room with a blanket tablecloth, some candles in the middle, and had everything ready so that when Flynn finally got home they could have a nice evening in.

After setting out the wine glasses, Yuri set up one last thing. He laid out some comfy pajamas for Flynn to wear and then changed into his own.

Flynn walked in and then grinned, laughing a little when Yuri explained his indoor pajama picnic.

Later, after the meal was long done and the wine was mostly finished, Flynn set down his glass and pulled Yuri into a kiss, gently taking Yuri's wine glass to set it aside too.

"Sadly, our anniversary is over," Flynn murmured when he pulled away, gesturing to the clock over the fireplace. "But I don't think that means we have to stop celebrating," he added, tugging Yuri towards the bedroom with a seductive smile.

"Oh definitely not," Yuri agreed smugly, letting Flynn lead him along. Operation pajama party… successful.


	27. Pajama Party Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – For more disclaiming, check earlier chapters.
> 
> Inspiration – More Pajama stories because I felt like it
> 
> A/N – None of the snippets are meant to be inter-connected, so don't worry if things don't entirely mesh from one section to the next. (Though the first two could be inter-connected, which was totally unintentional.)

_**Around the House** _

Flynn liked watching Yuri wander around the house in just his pajamas. There was something really nice about that sort of thing. Domestic even.

Not that Flynn intended to ever so much as imply to Yuri that he was being domestic in some way… other than when he was cooking, since that was always hilarious. Flynn didn't want to chance Yuri deciding to stop wearing the night clothes around the house out of pique. (Fortunately, Yuri would never stop cooking, if only because Flynn was so inept whenever he tried to be spontaneous or interesting when he made the meals.)

When Yuri wandered about in just his pajamas, it reminded Flynn that this was their house. Their home together. They could relax and be comfortable here without worrying about what someone else might think. The fabric was softer than Yuri's normal clothes and he seemed… unguarded in some way that he wasn't normally.

"Stop being introspective. You get that look on your face and I have to wonder what mundane thing you're getting all philosophical over this time," Yuri said, making Flynn shift around so that the raven-haired man could move to sit beside him on the couch.

"Pajamas," Flynn declared, earning the hoped for snort of laughter.

_**On the Couch** _

"I can't find my stretchy pants. You know, the ones that are super comfy sleep in but aren't technically pajama pants," Yuri complained to Flynn, scowling at the dresser drawer. "I had them last night..."

"I think they're still where we discarded them this morning," Flynn responded thoughtfully. "Draped over the couch. Do you… really need to wear them? I'm sort of thinking they'll just get in the way again."

Yuri snickered in amusement, before standing up to kiss Flynn. "If you think you're being subtle, you're really not," Yuri assured him.

"Oh, I don't know, I think I remember someone who didn't get what our Captain meant by 'the bigger twin' who might have been a little confused..." Flynn yelped and then let out a shriek of laughter as Yuri tackled him to the bed and sent his hands straight to Flynn's weakest spots.

"Tickle war!" Yuri declared, cheerfully taking advantage of how much more ticklish his lover was.

_**Ungodly Hours of the Night** _

Stealthily, Yuri sneaked out from under the covers, into his robe, and out of the room. He headed for the kitchen and started up a pot of chamomile tea in hopes that it might help him go to sleep. He'd been trying for hours, laying there with Flynn, but what normally lulled him to sleep – the soft sound of Flynn's breathing and the thumping of Flynn's heart beneath Yuri's ear – was only making him increasingly tense instead.

He'd gotten back from Dahngrest this morning and there was a small box burning a hole in Yuri's travel bag. Metaphorically, anyway, or Flynn might have noticed the flames.

"Something bothering you?" Flynn asked.

Yuri jumped and nearly fell over, whirling around to look at Flynn. "I didn't mean to wake you," he blurted out, heart thudding.

"And I didn't mean to startle you," Flynn replied with an amused smile. "I thought you heard me; I'm sorry."

"No, it's… I was kind of lost in thought."

"I noticed. Making tea?" Flynn asked, settling at the table.

"Chamomile," Yuri agreed, adding more water to the kettle at Flynn's unspoken request. "Really, I'm sorry I woke you..."

"It's fine," Flynn insisted, "I just… don't sleep well without you. Try adding the valerian root; it always helps knock me out when I can't sleep."

Yuri raised an eyebrow, but added some to his tea mix as recommended. "Really can't sleep without me, huh?"

Flynn flushed slightly. "I… it's… your… presence is comforting, that's all."

Laughing softly, Yuri pinched the tea infusers shut and dropped them in the cups to await the hot water. "I usually sleep better with you too, but I guess I'm just a little wound up tonight. Or this morning. What time is it, anyway?"

"Early enough to still be late, and late enough that I'd have a hell of a time staying awake tomorrow morning if I hadn't already taken the day off for your birthday." Flynn paused, then asked, "is this about your birthday?"

"Kind of." Yuri shrugged and settled into the chair beside Flynn's, propping his arm up on the kitchen table. "Remember how I got my birthday?"

"Yeah… it was kind of presumptuous of me, wasn't it?" Flynn smiled self-consciously and Yuri reached out to hold his hand gently.

"A little, yes, but I liked the sentiment. It bothered me when you first brought up birthdays. I didn't know when mine was, so I might as well not have one, and it never struck me as weird until I realized that… being a street kid meant there were a lot of things normal kids had that I didn't. Not just parents or a warm place to sleep or knowing that there are people who care enough to provide for you… but having someone who wanted to celebrate the day you were born because you're precious to them. And then you said that we could celebrate the day we met as my birthday. You were already sharing your dad and your home with me, but that… you wanted to always celebrate the day I came into your life.

"I was so embarrassed when I started crying," Yuri added in an undertone, a little amused that this time Flynn was the one wiping at his eyes.

"You are precious to me," Flynn declared, his grip on Yuri's hand tightening briefly for emphasis.

"I love you too," Yuri responded quietly

They sat there in peaceful silence until the whistling of the teapot interrupted them. Once the water was poured, Yuri set the mugs in front of them on the table and then cradled his, waiting for the tea to finish steeping.

"So you just got lost in thought about when we were kids, or was it something more?" Flynn finally asked.

"Ah… well, Brave Vesperia has been doing really well lately. Karol and I have been thinking of sort of… splitting it into two branches. One branch will do jobs on just this continent and the other will work just Tolbyccia. Judy wants to spend more time with Ba'ul, so we might do a third branch with her in charge, just sort of wandering the world on the Fiertia. We're still ironing out the final details, but it's pretty much set that Karol is going to run the Tolbyccia branch and… I'll be running the Illyccia branch. Since I'll be on just one continent, it means I can be here, in Zaphias with you, more often." He paused, adding, "if we get work in Hypionia or Desier, then I may still get called down there, but it's more likely to fall on Judy and her team."

Flynn lit up with a grin. "I know you'll miss traveling the world all the time, but I love the idea of getting to see you more often." He paused, frowning, "you're not doing this just for me, are you?"

"No." Yuri reached over and swatted Flynn's arm lightly. "Though I can't say you weren't a factor. I love the idea of spending more time with you. I can't say I'll miss long boat rides either; it might be cooler when the boat is flying thanks to a giant feather whale-dragon, but long boat rides are long boat rides and eventually the whole thing gets a little old. There's plenty of work to be had on Tolbyccia alone and… as much as I enjoy traveling, narrowing how far I travel and making Zaphias my home base again has become more and more appealing these last few years.

"I don't want to settle down completely or anything, but I… if I get too far away from here these days, I wind up missing you so much it hurts." Yuri shrugged and tugged lightly on the tea infuser's chain, pretending to be fascinated by the ripples in the tea's surface.

"Like your chest is being crushed because something, maybe something small or silly or stupid, made you think of sharing it with me, only… I'm too far away," Flynn filled in quietly. "I have days like that too. I just want to rush home and tell you about my day, or drag you along to some event, but… we each have our jobs and our lives. We knew the long-distance would be hard on our relationship when we chose to start it, but that doesn't make the days when I miss you any easier."

"Well this should help, at least," Yuri said, relieved to hear that Flynn had those same bad days he did. Much as he disliked it when Flynn suffered, at least this was a shared suffering.

"So, how much more often are we talking about. Once every other month or..."

"Probably more like a week every month at first while I'm training the new team members and then… we'll have a guild house set up in the public quarter and I'll probably spend a lot of time running that. So, in the end, I'll be here more often than not. At least three weeks out of a month..." he trailed off at Flynn's shocked look.

"You are settling down," Flynn accused.

Yuri scowled into his tea and then plucked out the infuser. Scooping some sugar (okay, lots of sugar) into his tea, he grumbled, "I am not turning domestic."

"Yeah, sure you aren't," Flynn drawled dryly. "Is that what's bugging you? Deciding to settle down, by your standards?"

"I… well..." Yuri tried to sip his tea, but it was still too hot. "I was going to ask you something tomorrow -"

"Later today, you mean?" Flynn interjected.

"- but I'll ask now instead," Yuri continued, ignoring the interruption. He got up, crossed over to where his bag was sitting, mostly forgotten, on the floor by the door. Pulling out the box, he went back to the table and sat it in front of Flynn, who stared at it like it was a Fake-Box waiting to attack.

"That is not an encouraging look on your face."

"Sorry. Just… is that what I think it is?"

"What do you think it is?" When Flynn opened his mouth to respond, Yuri interrupted in exasperation. "Just open it."

Flynn opened the box. Inside sat two delicate looking rings made of intertwined silver and everlight. "Oh my..." Flynn carefully lifted one out and examined it closely, his tea utterly forgotten.

"I know we've pretty much already promised each other forever, but… I figure I ought to make an honest man out of you."

There was a mirthful snort as Flynn gave Yuri a very dry look. "You make me honest? Or is it the other way around?"

"I'm the one proposing."

"You haven't actually asked anything yet."

"Flynn Scifo… you are precious to me," Yuri reached out and entwined their fingers together again. "Will you marry me?"

When relating the story later, Flynn insisted that he did not cry.

_**Dog-Eyed View** _

Repede liked to teach things to the younger dogs and cats in Zaphias – primarily those in the Lower Quarter. Mostly he taught things like how best to catch pests such as squirrels and where the warmest places in the winter were. But the ones who had pet humans got special classes.

How to take care of your emotionally stunted pets. In return for them feeding, petting, and providing a home, it was important to care for a pet human's emotional state.

When a human is sad, they need to be cuddled. Humans love cuddling, but don't often think to ask for it. Cuddling, however, is guaranteed to boost their emotional wellness. So when a pet human is sad, go sit beside them and curl up next to them, or on their lap if you're small enough to do so. Put your head under their hand to ask for petting, as they find the action as soothing as a dog or cat does. Lick away their tears if they cry.

If a human is too sedate, then demand they get up and go on a walk. Get them to play with you, or go outside the barrier and fight monsters if that's their preferred form of exercise.

However, there are more difficult emotional states to deal with. Obliviousness in the face of a desire to become someone's mate when the attraction is mutual – that's a particularly vexing emotional state, especially when both your pets feel that way towards one another. There are a lot of ways to deal with this problem, however. Tripping them into one another, tangling a leash around their legs, 'accidentally' locking them in a small room together… Repede had a ridiculous number of stories to share with the younger generation of pet owners about the trials and tribulations of setting up human pets to become involved with their mate. It would be so much simpler if humans could smell attraction like a normal animal, but that was just one of many reasons why they were pets and needed cats and dogs to guide them.

Now if only he could train his pets to stop leaving their pajamas all over the house… maybe if he started using them to build a nest, it would get the message across.

_**100 Degrees** _

Yuri tried to blink away the fuzziness in his head when he woke up, but there was far too much of it. The room was too bright anyway and, with a groan of frustration, Yuri brought up his hands to cover his eyes.

"Yuri, are you awake?"

Frowning in concentration, Yuri brought his hands down. He sat up on his elbows and studied the blond perched on the edge of his bed (who was, in turn, studying Yuri with a combination of relief and amusement).

"When did you get here?" Yuri asked. This was Dahngrest and Flynn was supposed to be in Zaphias… right?

"I heard you were really sick. Judith and Ba'ul brought me here to see you." Flynn reached out and brushed the back of his hand against Yuri's forehead. "Still feverish," he murmured softly.

"I feel awful," Yuri agreed, closing his eyes and leaning in to Flynn's touch. His hand felt so good…

"I'll bet you do. But better now than before. Your fever was pretty bad when I got here, but it broke late last night. I'd bet you're down around a hundred degrees now. Hopefully you'll be closer to normal this afternoon." Flynn let his hand drop away and Yuri whined in displeasure.

Flopping back onto the bed, Yuri turned towards Flynn and reached out to hold his hand. "Just woke up; why'm I still so tired?" he grumbled, eyes already sliding closed again.

"Because recovering from being sick is tiring," Flynn reassured him. "Get some more rest and, at lunch, I promise you can have soup that Judith has made just for you."

"Judy made it?" Yuri echoed. Flynn replied in the affirmative. "You didn't help at all?"

This time Flynn laughed. "Not at all."

"Okay, then. Sounds good. Stay here with me?"

"For as long as you need me," Flynn promised.

As Yuri fell back into a restful sleep, he whispered, "always need you."


	28. Mourning Hair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – Something, something, don't own, something, something…
> 
> Inspiration – Yuri's lovely, long, luxureous hair

Flynn glanced up at the sound of Yuri walking into his office and then did a double take. His eyes widened in shock as Yuri walked in with a dejected expression on his face.

"Yuri… your hair..."

"I know." Yuri dropped onto the couch. "I'm in mourning. It's terrible."

"It's not that bad," Flynn argued, pushing away from his desk to stand up.

"Don't try to console me," Yuri insisted. "It's going to take forever to grow back out."

"It looks fine," Flynn insisted, walking over to lock the hallway door before settling beside Yuri.

"Fine? Fine?!" Yuri reached up to tug on the shortened strands. "It's almost as short as Estelle's hair!"

"Stop that." Flynn snickered as he batted Yuri's hands away and then began running his fingers through Yuri's hair, making sure to scratch his nails lightly down Yuri's neck with every stroke. "You say that like it's a bad thing; Lady Estellise has lovely hair."

"She does," Yuri allowed, "but that doesn't mean I want to mimic her hairstyle. I like having long hair."

"It's still longer than most men keep theirs," Flynn offered.

Yuri huffed, crossing his arms… and then ruining the effect by leaning into Flynn's touch.

Chuckling, Flynn coaxed Yuri to scoot around until he was sitting between Flynn's legs. "I forget, sometimes, just how vain you can be about your hair." As he spoke, he began pressing his thumbs against the base of Yuri's neck in slow circles.

Letting out a little whine, Yuri began to relax. "I'm not vain."

"You are. When it's about your hair, you're ridiculously vain. You like it long and silky and never pulled back… you hated having to keep it restrained when you were a knight. You brush it whenever you think no one will notice. You developed specific changes to your fighting style so that you could flip your hair out of your face without losing momentum..." Flynn leaned forward and nuzzled against Yuri's neck before pushing Yuri's hair out of the way in order to plant feather-light kisses.

"Okay," Yuri conceded breathlessly, "so I'm a little vain."

Flynn leaned forward a bit to nibble on Yuri's right ear. He hummed when Yuri squirmed against him with little whimpers of pleasure. He returned to Yuri's neck, making his way around to Yuri's other ear while his hands slid around to Yuri's waist. His fingers teased the skin above Yuri's pants and he reveled in the sharp exhale that greeted him.

"Flynn..." Yuri groaned. "I'm trying to mourn my hair and you're being very distracting."

"Hmmm… and here I thought I was consoling you," Flynn teased, sliding his hands forward to rub at Yuri's thighs and spread his legs a little more, letting out a breathy moan of his own as Yuri squirmed again, rubbing back against Flynn's own arousal.

"Consoling, huh?"

"Offering you solace in your time of need," Flynn agreed, deciding to see if he could get away with putting a hickey on Yuri's neck even with Yuri's hair so much shorter.

"Seems more like your horny and taking advantage of my..." Yuri gasped as Flynn's palmed him through his pants.

"Taking advantage of your…?" Flynn prompted with a sly smirk.

"My grief stricken state," Yuri managed to finish, leaning his head back against Flynn's shoulder and breathing harder.

"Do you want me to stop?" Flynn asked, knowing full well what Yuri's answer would be.

"I'm not done complaining yet," Yuri declared.

Flynn snickered and then went back to work on the hickey, his hands undoing the ties and buttons of Yuri's pants. Then he went to work, pushing Yuri's pants and underwear down enough that he could free Yuri's shaft, curling his right hand around it while his left slid up to undo the belt holding Yuri's vest in place, then slid back under Yuri's clothes to begin toying with his nipples.

"Oh… oh, shit..." Yuri lapsed into a breathy silence, pushing into Flynn's hands while simultaneously rubbing back against Flynn. Neither was entirely certain just how long they stayed in that haze, building up the pleasure between them, but then Yuri clutched at Flynn's thighs and came with a grunt.

Rocking purposefully against Flynn's still clothed erection, Yuri said, "you know… I could still use some more consoling..."

"I thought you said I was taking advantage of your grief?" Flynn interjected.

"Comforting me in my time of weakness," Yuri amended with a laugh. "Let's take the backdoor to your room and you can have..."

"If the next words out of your mouth are a backdoor access joke, I'm finishing myself off alone in the bathroom," Flynn warned.

Yuri snickered and rocked his hips again. Then he sobered a bit. "Want to fuck me into the sheets?"

"Yes..." Flynn gave Yuri a little shove to get him moving and then got to his feet. He only paused on the way to the door between his office and bedroom to clean his hand off with some tissues.

* * *

Curled around Yuri and feeling almost sinfully lazy, especially considering it was still early afternoon and he was basically skipping work to have sex with his boyfriend (not that he didn't normally put in more than enough overtime to justify himself if anyone noticed him missing and asked later), Flynn finally said, "so what happened to your hair?"

"Oh, so now you want to know."

"I was..."

"Offering solace. Yeah, sure." Yuri laughed softly, sounding far happier than the morose figure he'd cut earlier. "I got pinned down in a fight with a monster and the damn thing's claws were razor sharp. Better my hair than my neck, but still… such a great loss. Judy flipped it off me and avenged my honor. Then she insisted on giving me a haircut. She had no sympathy for my loss; said I was being such a baby about the whole thing." His voice grew pouty as he related the last part.

"You probably were," Flynn informed him, grinning as Yuri's expression changed to mirror the pout in his voice.

"How long do you think it'll take to grow out?" Yuri asked, snuggling into Flynn's embrace instead of going for the argument.

"Considering how fast your hair grows, it'll probably still take a year or two to get back to your preferred length, but… your hair is still perfect for this..." Flynn brought a hand up to stroke through Yuri's shortened strands. "Try not to worry so much. You're still prettier than me."

"I'd get you for that, but I'm too comfortable," Yuri informed him primly.

"Get some sleep. If you're actively choosing not to argue then you must be exhausted."

"Very…" Yuri hummed in pleasure as Flynn's fingertips scratched his neck lightly and let his eyes slide closed, face relaxing as sleep claimed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, that wasn't actually an outfit or attachment... but I wanted to write it and put it here. So there.
> 
> Was anyone worried I'd made him bald? Even for just a moment?


	29. Revisionist History

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw somewhere a short story putting Flynn in Madoka's place and Yuri in Homura's… but I wanted to do it the other way around. ;)
> 
> Inspiration – If Flynn's fancy armor and Yuri's super pretty armor were Magical 'person' outfits (Estelle's would be her Magical Girl outfit from the coliseum, Rita's would be the one she gets for the Miska degree, and Karol's is the golden armor that Nan gave him)

Timeline One

Yuri peered into the room hesitantly, frowning when he saw that, just like the nurses had warned him, there was no change. Letting out a sigh, he slipped into the room and settled on to the chair by the bed; his backpack was dropped carelessly beside him, not quite yet ready to start his homework. Instead he simply sat there, staring at the person lying in the bed.

Flynn is too still, his hair flat and his eyes shut. There's an IV hookup and a soft 'beep beep' from the heart monitor. It's been nearly a week and the doctors clearly aren't expecting Flynn to wake up any time soon.

Or at all.

There had been a car accident. They'd been on their way home from a party late Saturday night and Flynn was driving. They were seniors this year and Finath didn't mind them staying out late on weekends anymore. But one drunk driver later and… Flynn was in a coma, Yuri's right arm had been sprained, and the driver of the other car was barely scratched up for all that he was behind bars.

It wasn't fair.

Not for the first time, Yuri found himself burying his face against the sheets on Flynn's hospital bed and began to cry.

"I just wish you'd wake up..."

Outside the hospital room, a small white creature watched in satisfaction.

Timeline Two

Yuri peered into the room hesitantly, expecting there to be no change, just like the nurses had warned him. He wasn't expecting Flynn to be standing in the middle of the room, very much awake.

"Flynn!" Yuri exclaimed, his backpack dropping to the ground as Yuri rushed in to throw his arms around his friend's shoulders.

"Yuri?" Flynn's voice shook as he returned the hug. "Oh, god… Yuri… Yuri, you're alive..." Flynn sobbed.

"I'm fine," Yuri assured him. "Barely banged up by the crash at all."

"Crash? Right… the crash..."

Timeline Twenty-Six

"I know this sounds crazy," Flynn said, racking his fingers through his hair, leaving the strands sticking up everywhere. "But I've been rewinding time over and over, trying to stop us all from dying when this witch attacks the town."

"Okay..." Yuri bit his lower lip nervously. "I honestly want to believe you, Flynn. I can tell you believe all this, but..."

"But what if its all in my head, something my mind came up with while I was comatose?" Flynn filled in.

Yuri nodded, feeling miserable. Flynn waking up was a miracle, but at the same time the blond was still suffering. This wasn't what Yuri had been wishing for at all.

"If I show you a witch, then you'll believe me," Flynn responded, confident.

Timeline Twenty-Seven

Flynn's ability to stop time (or rewind back to a certain point, apparently) is wonder to behold. It almost looked like Flynn was teleporting out of the way at the last second when really he was freezing time and walking away.

Flynn is amazing. Yuri always knew that, but watching Flynn fight the witch… it's something else entirely. He's clad in white and blue armor and is utterly beautiful, dazzling… and Yuri wants to hide his eyes in fear. Flynn shouldn't be shouldering these burdens on his own.

Yuri wishes he could help.

Timeline Thirty-Three

Kyubey explained to Yuri that his race re-purposed the Grief Seeds to power a machine capable of delaying the heat death of the universe. Which, admittedly, made very little sense to Yuri.

"The universe isn't going to die for billions of years, right?"

 _Oh, millions of billions of years. I'm not sure your species even has a word for a number that big._ Kyubey responded absently.

"Right. So, how much time have the Grief Seeds added to the universe?"

 _Nearly a million years so far._ Kyubey tilted his head to the side, _most people don't think to ask these questions._

"Well, I've got a few more to ask. Where do the Witches come from?"

Timeline Thirty-Four

Yuri's stomach flips over and he has to run for the bathroom when he learns where Witches come from.

Someday Flynn will give in to despair and become a Witch, just like every Magical before him. Like every other Magical in town will one day. Estelle, Rita, and Karol…

It's selfish of him, he knows, but as sad as Yuri is for the others, it's Flynn's fate that makes Yuri sick. He cares about the others, but he loves Flynn.

Timeline Forty

Yuri taps the Grief Seed against Flynn's Soul Gem. "You have to promise to keep going. I know it's hard and I've put so much on you… but every time around we learn something new, something important. I know it seems impossible, but we're going to make it."

"I'm just so tired," Flynn whispered, curling up against Yuri's side.

"I know." Yuri dropped a kiss on the top of Flynn's head. "I'm sorry. This is all my fault, isn't it? You don't say it, but… I must have made a wish, the first time around..."

"It's not your fault," Flynn insisted. "It's not. If it's anyone's fault..."

"Too bad shooting him won't make a difference."

Timeline Forty-Seven

"Is it just humans that are being forced to sacrifice our teenagers without our consent or are you fucking over other species too?"

Yuri figures he probably shouldn't be interrogating Kyubey while drunk – he shouldn't be drunk at all, he's too damn young for this – but Flynn will reset everything and his first hangover will wind up disappearing into the realm of never happened soon enough.

 _Very few species have the emotional capacity to create Witches,_ Kyubey eyes Yuri warily as he finishes off another beer. He'd tried to correct Yuri's 'language' regarding whether or not Kyubey was actually being exploitative earlier and got treated to an explanation about 'lying by omission' and how, whether or not Kyubey liked it, he every time he left out information a potential Magical needed to make a genuinely informed decision, he was lying by omission. By claiming he wasn't a liar because he only lied by omission instead of through the actual words, Kyubey was also lying to himself.

Kyubey gave up arguing not because he agreed, but because he figured that arguing was pointless by now.

"So how many species are you exploiting."

_Twenty-seven._

"That million years you've com… comp…" Yuri frowned and sighed. "Is that from all of those worlds, or just ours."

_All of them._

Yuri picks up a kitchen knife and stabs Kyubey to death. When another Kyubey comes by to eat the corpse, Yuri stabs that one to death too.

When Flynn comes home from collecting weapons to fight Walpurgisnacht with, he pretends not to see the dead bodies on the floor.

Timeline Fifty-Four

Estelle is killed fighting a witch. Rita's there and witnesses the whole thing.

Technically Rita kills the witch… by transforming into a witch of her own.

Flynn has to kill Rita.

Yuri watches and wishes that wishing could bring something other than suffering.

Timeline Fifty-Nine

"You actually believe that, don't you?" Yuri asked with a mocking smile. "That's kind of pathetic, that you've lied to yourself so much that you actually believe it now."

_I don't follow._

"Well, first, you do feel emotions, Kyubey. Perhaps not as strongly as humans, but you do feel them. You feel fear. You're afraid of the end of the universe." Yuri snickered. "So you've come up with this convoluted system to sacrifice other races to put off that heat death for as long as possible. But your fear blinds you to the fact that by creating more and more powerful witches, eventually you'll create one capable of destroying the very universe you claim you want to save, thus shortening the universe's life instead of prolonging it. Your species actions are ridiculously self-destructive and if you weren't so terrified of entropy, you'd have seen it for yourself already.

"Only emotion can blind a person to facts that run contrary to their preferred world view so thoroughly."

 _A witch of such unimaginable power is a possibility…_ Kyubey conceded uncomfortably. _We should be able to contain the threat before it gets that big._

"So you say," Yuri murmured. "I think you've deluded yourself so thoroughly that the witch with that sort of power could be staring you in the face and you'd still never see them coming." Kyubey didn't respond, so Yuri shrugged and moved on to his next question, writing down for Flynn anything relevent he'd need to remember for the next loop.

Timeline Sixty-Five

Yuri asks Kyubey, "you have to fulfill every wish made as part of the contract, right? No take backs just because you dislike the wish?"

_Once we've offered the wish, we can't take that offer back. But if the wish is unreasonable then we cannot grant it._

"Define what you mean by unreasonable," Yuri tells him, knowing that he has to ask and ask and ask to get anything useful from the damned thing.

_It has to be something doable using the power of the Magical's innate power. Flynn's love for you made him powerful enough to bend time, and even transcend it to some degree. You… your potential is amazing, Yuri. You could do so much more than him._

_You could be a force of nature._

Timeline Seventy-Three

_You could affect your solar system._

Timeline Eighty

_You could change the entire galaxy._

Timeline Ninety-One

_You could remake the universe._

Timeline Ninety-Three

Yuri waits until Flynn is distracted by Walpurgisnacht and then approaches Kyubey.

"I have a wish."

_Very well. What is your wish?_

"I wish that your race had chosen a different method for extending the life of the universe that didn't involve exploiting species capable of feeling emotion and instead made Earth a protected world safe from the manipulation of any species not indigenous to it, including your own."

 _What? No!_ But Kyubey cannot stop the process. He had already given his consent for a wish, after all.

Any wish.

The contract snaps into existence, compelling the creature to reach into Yuri's chest. _This is treason against the wish!_ Kyubey shrieks, frustration actually showing through the creature's expression, the first change in him that Yuri's ever seen.

Yuri thinks seeing that look on Kyubey's face is worth the pain of having his soul extracted. "It could have been worse," Yuri informs him coldly. "I could have wished your race had never existed. Consider, for a moment, what a highly emotional species will do to survive when being manipulated towards self-destruction? If you're willing to kill us for the sake of your own survival, why shouldn't we consider the reverse a viable option?"

_We never should have come here..._

Reality is already unwinding as Yuri glimpses his gleaming red Soul Gem and the armor in golds and reds and dark grays that would have been his Magical outfit, if there had been any time for him to be one.

"Yuri! What did you do?" Flynn demanded, breathless as he breaks away from fighting the witch.

"I made a wish that would make it impossible for any human to have ever become a Magical. Even us," Yuri smiled tiredly, reaching over to take Flynn's hand in his own. "I'm sorry it took me so long. I was just so afraid of losing you. But even a world where you never wake up is better than making you continue to suffer for my selfishness."

Final Timeline

It takes several months before Flynn finally wakes up from his coma. But he's not the same and Yuri doesn't know what to do.

At first he's okay with Flynn's constant clinging; Yuri's clingy too, after months of wondering if Flynn was even really still in there. But there's something about Flynn's clinginess that… doesn't sit right.

During the first big thunderstorm after Flynn comes home from the hospital, Yuri gets the story out of Flynn.

"It wasn't real, though," Flynn says, curling up against Yuri's side. "It couldn't have been… could it?"

Yuri wonders. "Every time you'd tell me everything we'd learned about the system the last time around; what worked, what didn't, what the consequences of the different wishes I could make were… that I was getting more potential power with each run through..." Yuri wants to say it sounds impossible. But somehow, he's not sure.

"If it were real, I may have altered the projected heat death of the universe by a million years," Yuri finally says. "Do you think that was the right thing to do?"

"They were exploiting us without our permission," Flynn murmured tiredly, jolting at the sound of thunder.

Yuri wishes he could ease Flynn's fears, but he knows that's going to take time.

"Every life is important," Flynn added quietly. "They had no right to deem ours as worth less than others just because we think differently from them. Just because we have emotions doesn't make us obligated to use those emotions the way they think is best."

Yuri doesn't know what to say to that. "So, out of all those timelines… did I ever tell you why I wished for you to wake up?"

"No..." Flynn sounded puzzled. Probably thinking that, with their friendship, the answer was obvious. And maybe it was, but there was more to it than that.

"Good." Yuri smiled and held Flynn tighter. "I did it for the most selfish of all reasons. I did it because I love you and I wanted to be with you again."

Flynn's wide-eyed look of shock giving way to a joyful smile and reply of 'I love you too' makes Yuri hopeful that, whether those events were real or the result of Flynn's time in a coma, Flynn will recover from his trauma.

Yuri will be with him every step of the way.

* * *

_That planet is off limits._

No one dares ask why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yuri's more ruthless and logical than Madoka, so he's less likely to buy Kyubey's BS about Magicals being necessary for humanity's evolution and more likely to find it both ludicrous and insulting. He's far more likely to assume they're exploiting those who have an impossible desire and a good balance of intelligence, imagination, and desperation. Also, he's likely to be utterly pissed that anyone has ever had to put up with this and want to put an end to the whole thing. Not just create a universe without witches, but a universe without the system that leads to witches. As to what the new system Kyubey's race came up with to prolong the life of the universe, well... *shrug*


	30. Respect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuri accidentally wins over Witcher (and Sodia, sort of) by fixing the results of Flynn's cooking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer – It's all Bamco's.
> 
> Inspiration – Flynn in an apron, again :)

The first time he does it is at the location that later became Aurnion. By the time the monsters are all dead and everyone has been gathered together in a single place, it was late. It was too dark to safely summon Ba'ul, and the Fiertia, so they opted to stick out the night with everybody else, helping to pitch tents, treat the wounded, and cook.

Unfortunately, somehow Flynn was one of the people who cooked.

Yuri managed to mitigate that disaster by ensuring that only Brave Vesperia, Flynn, and Flynn's two-person posse were the only ones to eat his food. Yuri's group had experience with finding creative ways to make Flynn's cooking palatable and he'd assumed that Sodia and Witcher had too.

It quickly became apparent that this was the first time Flynn had ever cooked for them. Sodia had seemed excited… right up until that first bite when she just about turned red. Witcher started coughing and then stared balefully at his soup. Then they both looked hesitantly at Flynn, who was still serving soup to the rest of the group, as though they didn't know what to say.

Yuri took a small first bite and, sure enough, Flynn had made it too spicy. Turning to their blastia cooled stash of milk, Yuri added some to his soup and tried again. Not quite right, but close. Once he'd toned it down enough, he looked up to see Witcher and Sodia both staring at him with puzzled looks. So he passed over the milk to them and quietly said, "it'll tone down the spiciness without affecting the soup's other flavors too much."

Witcher took the offered milk with a grateful thank you. Sodia humphed and turned away… but added the milk when Witcher passed it to her anyway. When she was done, she returned the bottle to Yuri and refused to meet his eyes.

Flynn, of course, never noticed anything was amiss as he happily ate his too-spicy soup while chatting with Estelle (who'd added copious amounts of cheese to her soup) and Raven (who was tearing up bread to drop in his bowl).

* * *

The second time Yuri helped them was at the Hot Springs. While the ladies were taking their turn in the baths, Flynn prepared some breaded chicken in the guest kitchen. Then he preceded to over cook it.

So while the others tried to find some way to make the chicken more palatable, Yuri settled on the tried and true method of ketchup. He took a couple of tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, and some herbs he liked, and made a quick paste out of it, laughing off Flynn's teasing comment about never outgrowing his childhood habits of drowning his food in that sauce.

Just like he'd hoped, the sauce was just what he needed to ignore the taste of the over-done bird. Nudging Witcher, Yuri passed him the ketchup.

"Give it a try," Yuri told him. "It'll cover up the dry taste."

Witcher grimaced at his plate. "Can't be any worse," he muttered, blushing pink when he realized he'd said the words aloud. Mostly because Yuri smirked at him.

Once Witcher tasted a bite of chicken dipped in the sauce, he grinned at Yuri and thanked him quietly. "Looks like there's enough for Sodia to use too," he paused, then added, "mind if I give her the rest?"

"Sure," Yuri shrugged. "It doesn't keep long outside a blastia cooler and there's no point in storing that when we don't use it often. If she doesn't use it, it'll probably just go to waste."

So when the guys went to use the Hot Springs and ladies came back to find the chicken waiting for them… Witcher took Sodia aside and made her promise to eat the chicken using the sauce Yuri made and not to make a fuss about who made it.

"Without Yuri's quick thinking, the food would've been unpalatable," Witcher insisted. "So don't turn up your nose just because..."

"I get it," Sodia interrupted sharply. "Commander Flynn's cooking is… questionable, but Yuri Lowell's isn't. I… I can accept that." She clearly didn't like it, though.

* * *

After the world was saved, it kept happening. Brave Vesperia would show up to help out on a job meant to build relationships between the Empire and the Guilds and if Flynn happened to cook during the job… Yuri ran interference.

He taught Witcher and Sodia tricks for fixing food that was too salty. He taught them what to do about food that was too dry. He explained that Flynn tended to like spicier food, so he didn't always realize that he'd over done the flavor because it was to his taste, but not everyone else's, and what sort of coping strategies could get them through a meal other than adding milk to soup.

Eventually, Witcher asked Yuri why he hadn't told Flynn that he wasn't a great cook.

"I mean… we don't because he's our superior and… it's hard to approach him on something like this. But your his friend, so can't you…?"

Yuri smiled distantly and shook his head. "It's because he's my friend I have so much trouble telling him. I cooked a lot when we were growing up because he was so bad at it and he felt like he was burdening me with a chore he couldn't share in. So now that he's better at it – yes, really, he is – when I try to convince him to let someone else take his turn at cooking, Flynn will tell me things like 'I want to make something nice for you, for all the times you cooked something really good for me' and… even if it isn't the best food, he is putting his best effort into it. I don't want to insult that by telling him he shouldn't even try."

Witcher wasn't really sure what to say to that, other than "I'm really, really glad that Commandant Flynn has you for a friend." Witcher wasn't sure, but he thought Yuri might have actually blushed a bit, but in the darkness of the Aurnion evening there was no telling for sure.

* * *

"I'm not completely oblivious, you know," Flynn told Yuri one evening. "Sodia actually said something nice about you, without Witcher having to prompt her. It was weird."

"And now I'm confused. You're not oblivious about what and what does this have to do with Sodia saying something nice about me?" Yuri lay on his back, head cushioned on Flynn's lap.

"I'm still a terrible cook, aren't I?"

"Ah… well… I wouldn't say that you're the worst cook in the world..." Yuri hedged.

Flynn snickered. "I used to be. Now I'm a step or two up, which isn't saying much. The Wonder Chef still won't even look at me if we're in the same room. Which, admittedly, has only happened twice since he stormed out on the competition and I'm not sure he knew I was there the first time..." he tugged lightly at Yuri's hair when the raven-haired man snickered at him. "Oh shush you. Anyway. Sodia was trying a new recipe and she thought it was missing something… and she said she'd have to ask your opinion the next time she saw you. Which, not exactly a complement, but she wouldn't want your opinion if she didn't respect your culinary skills. I take it you've been teaching her coping skills for my less successful cooking ventures?"

"Witcher too," Yuri admitted.

"Thanks."

"Do you get why I never said anything?" Yuri asked quietly.

"Yeah. I do." Flynn leaned down and brushed a kiss against Yuri's forehead. "Thank you for that too."


	31. Observations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hand me that spanner," Rita ordered, pointing to the tool in question. "If you're going to be awake at this ungodly hour with me, then you're going to hand me tools and tell me stories about being a kid with a best friend." (AKA – Rita gets hooked on Yuri's stories about growing up with Flynn, but will never admit it, and maybe realizes along the way that she has acquired a weird family that she most definitely hadn't been looking for.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration – Kiddie outfits for the little versions of Yuri and Flynn. :) They were probably such adorable, mischievous little hellions as kids. (Yes, the word choice is deliberate.)

"So whats with this obsession you guys have with this Flynn anyway?" Rita asked as they headed towards Halure.

"It's just them," Karol said, waving at Yuri and Estellise. "I've never met him."

"He's the knight Estelle has a crush on," Yuri added quickly.

"Oh, not that again!" Estellise huffed, scowling at Yuri. "I don't have a crush on him. Why do you keep telling people that?!"

"Because aggravating you is amusing?" Yuri offered with a smirk.

Estellise just huffed again. "Flynn is a mutual friend of ours, though I've only known him for a few years. Yuri's his childhood friend and someone Flynn told me I could trust if I ever needed help outside of the castle."

"He… really said that?" Yuri sounded a little surprised, or maybe a little touched. Rita was still figuring him out.

"Of course he did," Estellise assured him. "Flynn even had me memorize the directions to the Comet Inn so I could find you, if it ever came to that. Though… I think I'd have been hopelessly lost that day if I'd had to seek you out all on my own. It's lucky for me that we ran into one another in the castle before I knew Flynn was gone."

"Huh..." Yuri looked away and muttered, "I wish he'd have mentioned that to me himself."

It was weird, but it kind of looked like Yuri's cheeks had gone a little pink. Most likely it was just the light from the sunset…

* * *

"So you must have traveled to a lot of places for your research, Rita," Estellise gushed, looking excited. "This is my first time outside the Zaphias barrier and it's been so… strange and wonderful."

Based on some of her and Yuri's comments from earlier, it was probably her first time anywhere outside of the castle, never mind Zaphias itself. But, whatever. If they wanted to hide the fact that Estellise was the princess, then that was no skin off her nose. Just so long as at least one of them realized the only person fooled was Karol, then Rita wouldn't feel too insulted by their attempt to skirt around the truth. "Yeah, I've been to Halure once or twice and to Capua Nor once when I was really young. Mostly I do research in the local forests. Accidentally blew up one of my cabins once when a couple of knights showed up unannounced while I was sleeping. The Captain thought it was hilarious; his protege not so much."

"I've done a lot of traveling lately too," Karol spoke up, then added sheepishly, "but this is the first time I've been an entire continent away from Dahngrest. What about you, Yuri?"

"This is the first time I've been away from Zaphias since I was a knight," Yuri answered. "I was stationed at Shizontania and… things went very badly there." Repede wandered over to his master and rubbed his head against Yuri's hand before sidling away again. "Well… when we were kids, Flynn and I would venture a little ways outside of town, in the areas patrolled by the knights. It was pretty stupid of us, but we thought we could handle anything as long as we stuck together."

Rita wondered why Yuri had left the knights and why Shizontania sounded so familiar. Something bad had happened there? Since Yuri had left the Knights and Flynn clearly hadn't… did something come between them then?

Sighing, Rita shrugged off her curiosity. What did it matter anyway? It's not like she cared about these people or anything. She just wanted to study Estellise, figure out if she was connected to the Rizomata formula, and then go back home. No attachments whatsoever.

* * *

"Wow, he's… different than I thought he'd be," Karol said, flopping onto the bed.

"Off! Off! You're going to soak the whole bed!" Rita exclaimed, shoving the kid onto the floor while Estelle disappeared into the bathroom in order to be the first to change into dry night-clothes.

"Owwww," Karol lamented from the floor.

"She's got a point, Karol," Yuri observed, toweling his own hair dry while another towel hung about his shoulders. "I don't want to have to sleep in a cold, damp bed."

"Sorry..."

Yuri waved off the apology. "So, if Flynn's not what you thought he'd be like, then… what did you think he'd be like?"

"Ah, well..."

"You're kind of a stereotypical rogue," Rita spoke up. "I, for one, thought he'd be more like you. Instead he's the stereotype for the perfect chivalrous knight. You two must argue all the time."

"Feels that way a lot lately," Yuri admitted. "He used to be more trouble than I am. We used to sneak into an apple orchard just outside of town for fun. Most of the time it was my idea, since I like apples more than he does, but the first time we did it was all his idea."

"Really, what happened?"

"Ah… well..." Yuri frowned for a moment, as if he were reconsidering telling the story. But then he shrugged. "I was worried we'd get caught, but Flynn wanted to teach me to climb trees and he swore those trees were the best to learn on. So we..."

"All done, who's next?" Estellise called, vacating the bathroom.

"In a minute," Karol demurred. "Yuri's telling us a story about him and Flynn sneaking into an orchard to climb trees."

"Oh, Flynn told me you two used to do that all the time," Estellise exclaimed, settling onto the bed. "That you never listened to him about getting caught or getting hurt."

"Getting caught?" Yuri rolled his eyes. "That's rich, coming from him. The first time we went there was all his idea. Anyway, he brought me there to teach me how to climb. Flynn was always so good at everything he did, so he was already a natural. Zipped up and down a few trees, trying to convince me that it was safe and I had nothing to be worried about. He wouldn't let me get stuck..." his tone softened some at the memory.

Rita wondered what it would have been like, to be so young and have someone to trust to come to the rescue if she got lost or trapped…

"Well, I wasn't about to let him think I was scared or anything, so I finally started climbing up one of the trees. Naturally, about halfway up, one of the limbs snapped and I broke my arm hitting the ground. Flynn freaked out; I swear, he was crying more than I was and I was the one in pain.

"Anyway, as soon as my arm was healed and strong enough to hold my weight again, I went back to the orchard and climbed that same tree. Flynn was so angry with me for it, but it was nice to finally get the view from the top and munch on an ill-gotten apple or two. He hated it every time I went back there, but he always went with me anyway."

"Why did you keep going back?" Estellise asked quietly.

"Yeah, if that happened to me I'd never want to see that place again," Karol added.

"I wanted Flynn to see that we shouldn't let the things that hurt us hold us back. I think he got it, eventually. Took a while, though." Yuri wandered into the bathroom. "Well, Karol, if you're gonna be slow about it, then I'm going next." The door shut.

"Huh..." Karol settled on the bed again, pensively.

"Off!" Rita snapped, shoving the kid to the floor again.

"Why can't you just ask?" Karol said morosely from the ground.

"Why can't you just think before doing?" Rita snapped back, scowling and crossing her arms.

Estellise, however, was watching the bathroom door with an odd expression on her face. "When Flynn would tell me about them sneaking into the orchard, he always said that Yuri was never one to let anything hold him back." She sounded a little envious, but whether it was of Yuri's friendship with Flynn, his innate sense of freedom, or some combination of the two, Rita wasn't sure.

There had been an odd tone to Yuri's voice, though. _'_ _I swear, he was crying more than I was…_ _I wanted Flynn to see that we shouldn't let the things that hurt us hold us back.'_ What was it like to care about someone so much that their pain hurt more than your own?

Or to care so much that you'd do something dangerous, and maybe even scared you, to make that person stronger?

* * *

When Estelle risked her life for Rita's, she felt like she understood Flynn a little better. She never, ever wanted Estelle to risk herself like that again.

_'What do you think Estellise thinks of me?'_

Such a stupid question, really. Estelle wanted Rita to be safe, even at the cost of her own safety. How did she even manage to deserve friendship like that?

* * *

"Well, I was taken in by one of the orphanages Altosk runs after my parents died. I guess that's when I started really looking up to the Don," Karol told Estelle. "I don't really remember my parents, though."

"I don't remember mine either," Yuri told the kid. "I had been on the streets a long while already by the time Sir Finath found me."

"Sir… Finath?" Estelle echoed curiously.

"Flynn's father. Sir Finath Scifo. Flynn looks a lot like him these days, or at least at lot like how I remember him being." Yuri's hands tightened for a moment before relaxing at his sides. "He died saving the lower quarter from a blastia that overloaded, like the one at Shi… at Heliord," he corrected himself. "Flynn doesn't like talking about how his father died, so don't say anything about it to him, okay?"

"Still hits him pretty hard, huh?" Rita thought a moment, then asked, "how long ago did he die?" Couldn't have been that long ago, right?

"Hmmm… we were thirteen, so about eight years ago." Yuri's hands tightened again, "his Aunt took Flynn away to the public quarter around that time and left me behind in the lower quarter orphanage. Hanks took me in not too long after; said he wanted to keep me out of trouble. Flynn was always sneaking out to visit me even though it always got him into trouble."

"Why didn't she take you too?" Rita asked, the question slipping out without her permission. She already knew why, after all. Because people can't be trusted.

"She didn't like me. Never did. She visited a handful of times while I was living with them and argued with Finath every time about bringing in a street rat like me to stay in the same room as her perfect nephew. She didn't think we could hear, or maybe she just didn't care. If she noticed that Flynn resented her for it, then I suppose she blamed that on me too.

"Eventually, though, she'd had enough and she told Flynn that if he ran off to visit 'that street trash' again, she'd kick him out… and so he packed his things. Came to stay with me and Hanks and got a job waiting tables at the Inn where I was the cook's assistant. We went back to sharing everything like we'd never even left off..." Yuri trailed off wistfully.

"Funny thing is, we didn't argue even half so much then as we do now."

They'd last seen Flynn just hours earlier, but Rita had the impression that Yuri had missing Flynn for far longer than that.

"What changed?" Karol asked.

Yuri shrugged and stood up. "We got older and our differences finally started mattering. We made a promise, when we were kids, that Flynn thinks we can only keep if we're both part of the Knights. He… he doesn't understand that I just don't fit there." Quieter, almost mournfully, Yuri added, "or he doesn't trust me to find another way to keep it."

"But..." Estelle stopped and looked down.

To Rita's surprise, her hand had followed her mouth's example and acted without permission. It rested, lightly, on Estelle's arm… which was warm and kind of nice. Rita had to mentally kick herself away from the distraction. "I think maybe we've wandered into painful territory he doesn't really want to talk about," Rita mumbled. "Let's give him some space."

Never let it be said she was completely tactless.

* * *

"Flynn and I used to go fishing all the time," Yuri said with a grin, having finished whittling a long stick into sharpness at one end.

"Don't you need fishing line and a lure for that?" Estelle asked, looking ever so confused.

"Nope. Spear fishing," Yuri said cheerfully, slamming the pointy stick right into a fish in the creek.

Estelle eeped with shock and Judy sniffed in mock-disdain. "I can do better than that."

"Better than getting a fish first try?" Yuri asked, depositing the dead fish on the bank and handing over the make-shift fishing spear with a grin. "Show off for us, then."

She did, neatly spearing two fish at once, and then presented Yuri with the fish with a flourish while he worked on gutting the first. "I don't gut fish, but I'll happily catch them for you and eat the final product," she told him with a grin.

"Works for me. Two more should be enough." He shooed her off and then waved off a rather half-hearted offer of help from a very green looking Karol.

Rita just picked up a knife and started helping him. "I'm not bad at fishing either, but I do prefer a line and a lure to go with the stick," Rita offered up. Then she added, "seems like fishing is more fun with friends."

"Seems that way," Yuri agreed mildly, giving Rita an amused, almost brotherly look.

"What's your favorite story about fishing with Flynn?" she asked, grinning in amusement as Estelle tried to get closer to hear better while steadfastly ignoring all the fish guts and bones.

"Ah, well..." Yuri started talking and Rita listened more to his tone then his words.

Yeah, there it was. Yuri was longing for Flynn's time and company. It dripped off his words in equal amounts of joy and pain. She wondered when the last time they'd been able to relax and have fun together had been.

What worried Rita – which, of course, she'd never admit to – was that though she could tell that Flynn missed spending time with Yuri too… she couldn't tell if Flynn missed Yuri the same way Yuri missed Flynn.

Unfortunately, she wasn't sure how it was that Yuri missed him, other than it was… more than a friend would miss a friend. Like… like maybe Yuri was missing his other half.

* * *

"He always won and then he'd have the nerve to say 'are you alright, Yuri?' Ugh, really, it's like he had no clue that he was just adding insult to injury. Just 'cause he kicked my ass doesn't mean I'm so fragile that he'd have actually hurt me. He was always way too much of a goody-goody for that… even when he was still making trouble."

* * *

"Can't sleep?"

"Just… what Flynn and I said back there..." Yuri trailed off pensively and shook his head.

"I bet he knows what you really meant," Rita said. "He was trying to give you a wake up call and I can't say I don't think he isn't right… somewhat anyway. But you were trying to give him one too and I don't think you're wrong either. Sometimes words get in the way; it's the fact that you're both still trying that matters. This is why I like blastia; so much less complicated than people. Hand me that spanner," she added, pointing to the tool in question. "If you're going to be awake at this ungodly hour with me, then you're going to hand me tools and tell me stories about being a kid with a best friend."

Yuri nodded, handed over the spanner, and told Rita about Shizontania. About being eighteen and stupid, thinking that with Flynn at his side they could do anything… only being too oblivious to see how Flynn was slipping away into a depression about living up to his father until Flynn started lashing out at him, pushing him away. Yuri pushed back out of instinct and everything just sort of spiraled out of control.

He told her about the exploding blastia and Garista's experiments and the town's inevitable destruction. About Captain Niren, who gave his life in defiance of orders so that the people he'd sworn to protect would live… and how his death had, for a time, brought Yuri and Flynn back together in their determination to avenge him and how, when they'd confronted Garista with the truth, they'd been forced to kill in self defense.

Rita realized, with a sort of painful sorrow, that the funny Captain who'd interrupted her sleep and inadvertently caused her to blow up her research cabin was dead. It was a shame, really. For a knight, he'd seemed like a nice guy. He actually cared about people and didn't yell at her for talking bad about the Empire's golden-boy Garista.

"You must have thought that everything was going to work out, after that. Between you and Flynn, anyway." Rita paused while Yuri nodded.

"Things were better for a while," Yuri agreed, "but then he started asking when I was going to rejoin the knights and… he really didn't get it. I could have made it in Niren's brigade, but in any other… it would have killed me to stay. But no matter how I try to tell him how I feel about the knights and everything else… it's like he's not listening, or just hearing the bits he likes and ignoring the rest. But the blockade in the mountains is the perfect example of why I couldn't stay. There's no way that could have been a legal action, but because the Commandant orders it done and orders are orders… that makes it legal somehow. Might shouldn't..."

"Make right?" Rita finished for him. "No, it shouldn't. But sometimes it does. Sometimes it's the only way to put a stop to something terrible… like a person who sics monsters on children for their own warped amusement." Yuri flinched.

"I know what the consequences of my actions are..."

"But have you accepted them? 'Cause if you had… I think you'd have let Flynn arrest you back there." She gave him a brief smile, adding, "I'm glad you didn't, though. If Raven were the second most competent person on this boat instead of you -"

"I'm assuming you're counting yourself as the first most competent," Yuri muttered with an amused smirk.

"- then I'd probably have to drown him for the sake of my sanity," Rita finished, ignoring his interruption pointedly. She paused and then asked, "do you think Judith had a good reason for what she did?"

"I don't know… I hope so."

"Me too. Dragon freak she might have been, but I liked having her around."

* * *

"He's as angry at himself as he is at you." She's not going soft, Rita tells herself. She just doesn't want to keep looking at the kicked puppy expression on Flynn's face whenever he glances up from planning with Sodia and Witcher.

They were all trapped in a large tent for the evening as a sandstorm raged outside; no one had wanted to risk Ba'ul in those winds.

"What?" Flynn asked, confused.

"We trusted Raven – he trusted Raven – and it turns out the old man was probably involved in Alexei's kidnapping of Estelle. So he's mad at himself for not seeing it. Yuri wouldn't have taken it out on you if he didn't think you could handle, it though. So could you please stop looking at him like a forlorn kitten? It's weird and I think even Karol may get over how much you intimidate him soon to try and cheer you up."

Flynn smiled ruefully. "Thank you, Miss Mordio. I'll try to be less irritatingly obvious about it, at any rate."

"Small favors," she allowed. "Also, it's Rita, not Miss Mordio. Mage Mordio if you absolutely have to be formal. I'd rather you weren't but I won't hold my breath hoping."

"Mage Mordio," he agreed with a teasing look.

Flynn started to head back to his posse, but Rita said, "he misses you. All the more because he thinks that all those stories he tells us, about the times when it was just the two of you against the world, are just that now. Stories. He hates being left behind."

She wasn't sure he'd hear her, over the roaring and whistling of the wind, but Flynn nodded. "I miss him too. But… I thought I was the one getting left behind these days. I suppose he and I have been talking past one another too much of late." He offered her a more honest smile. "Thank you… Rita."

* * *

Rita never wanted to see anyone look the way Flynn did when they had to tell him Yuri had fallen.

Grief overtook his features and he had to brace himself against the stairwell wall. His tanned face went pale. Rita had honestly thought he was going to collapse. It was almost a relief to have the excuse to go home to research the Adephagos where she wouldn't have to watch Flynn tear himself apart searching for his beloved friend.

She'd wondered, before, if Flynn felt as strongly about Yuri as Yuri did for him. Rita wished, now, that she didn't have that answer.

* * *

Yuri Lowell was a jerk. A complete and utter jerk, making her worry like that.

She hugged him anyway.

For too long, Rita's only family had been blastia. She hadn't been looking for a new one. She hadn't wanted to deal with people, not with her father abandoning her mother after getting her pregnant or her mother choosing dangerous research over her daughter. People betrayed her and abandoned her and made her feel like she wasn't worth anything because she was too young and emotional to be respected for her hard work. People made her feel like a freak.

But then Yuri, Karol, and Estelle broke into her life. Estelle treated Rita like she was amazing… like knowing her was an absolute delight. Karol deferred to her knowledge and teased her and made her feel like protecting him… when he wasn't so annoying that she wanted to swat him. Yuri…

Yuri treated her like an equal. Like her age and gender didn't make her unworthy of respect. Even when he'd thought she might be a thief – which she knew he gave up on way sooner than he was willing to admit to – he treated her with more respect and dignity than her fellow researchers. He was the first adult in years who just accepted that she was every bit as competent as she claimed – since his former Captain, really – and… he was the reason there were suddenly people in her life that mattered to her.

He was the reason Estelle left the castle and why Karol came with them to Aspio. He was the reason they met Raven and teamed up with Judy. He'd brought this bizarre family into Rita's life and it had all nearly fallen apart with what they'd thought was his death.

Rita wondered if this was how it felt to have an obnoxious older brother.

She kind of liked it.

* * *

When Yuri and Flynn reunited at what would later be known as Aurnion, the two of them defeated a ridiculous number of monsters with only Repede as their backup. By the time the rest of them reached the duo, after the 'Vesperia 1' had annihilated the rest of the aer sick monsters in the area, the two were sitting on the ground, back to back, talking about… something, but whatever it was had Yuri gesturing wildly and Flynn laughing, a wild, joyous expression on his face as he kept toying with Yuri's hair.

"They should just kiss already," Rita muttered, just quiet enough that only Judy's pointed ears could pick up the comment.

Judy doubled over with laughter of her own and refused to explain the joke to Raven, even as she used his arm to keep from falling over entirely. Later she told Rita that Yuri and Flynn weren't self-aware yet to recognize their own feelings, much less realize those feelings were mutual.

Having a sister was kind of nice too.

Maybe, Rita mused to herself, she should start asking for stories about what it was like to grow up with Ba'ul for a best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And… that's a wrap. This was just an odd little Rita introspection piece… not that I could totally let go of the Fluri. (Because it writes itself. The Fluri just happens.)


	32. The Old Kingdom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abhorsen Yuri Lowell runs across a nearly dead Knight in the course of hunting down a necromancer and winds up with an unexpected ally in his quest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love to turn this into a full story, but I can't seem to come up with a full plot.
> 
> Inspiration – Bells and Magic Script (Charter Marks)

Yuri woke to the sound of Repede growling, low and angry.

Something was coming and Repede thought it was a threat. With Yuri's luck, it was probably some type of dead creature. He'd been tracking a necromancer for the last week and he (or she) was likely aware of him by now.

Checking his sword and bells as he stood up, Yuri verified that the tools of his trade were well secured. Necromantic bells liked to sound of their own volition; the Charter-bound versions Yuri used as an Abhorsen were no different in that respect. An errant sound at the wrong moment could potentially be more fatal to the user than the dead the bells were meant to control.

Drawing his Charter-marked sword, Yuri peered in the direction Repede seemed to sense the danger from.

"Do we need to check it out, or is the danger coming to us?" Yuri asked absently.

Repede got up and started walking.

Yuri took another look around to settle the landmarks in his mind, that way he could come back for his supplies easily enough, and then headed out after his dog.

After a few minutes of walking, Repede had led Yuri to a cave where a small creek passed across the opening. The whole thing was iced over and Yuri could feel death clinging to place.

"Shit..." Yuri sighed. "We missed the necromancer, again." He gave the dog a look. "Is it worth taking a look in the first district?"

Repede shook, a full body shiver, and then trotted over the frozen creek into the cave, confident his human was still following along.

Just inside the cave lay a dead man. He was about Yuri's height, blond hair, and the garb of a Lieutenant in the Imperial Knights. A Charter-mark was visible on the man's forehead. He'd been dead only a short time; his spirit was likely still in the first district of Death.

"He probably saw the necromancer," Yuri observed quietly, mulling things over in his head even as he spoke aloud for Repede's benefit. "So he could identify his killer to me… but then if the necromancer is aware of me, then this could be a trap..."

It didn't feel like a trap, though. It was entirely likely that the Knight had stumbled across the necromancer's trail himself and, due to lack of experience, had been caught unawares while the necromancer remained safe miles away, spirit walking through the first district of Death to kill his prey.

It was a little strange that the necromancer hadn't simply sent a dead construct after the Knight, but this particular necromancer seemed to prefer a more personal touch.

Mind made up, Yuri sheathed his sword and sank to his knees beside the corpse. He loosened the restraints on Kibeth, the Walker, and Saraneth, the Binder, taking care to hold the bells such that the clappers would not sound. Then, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Yuri slid into death.

Death was comparable, in some ways, to a river. The first district was cold, covered in a light fog. The ground was spongy, but generally safe, and covered by several inches of water at all times. It ebbed and flowed, tugging lightly at the feet of those who walked in it, drawing them towards the first gate, beyond which lay the more treacherous second district. The light was dim and gray, a perpetual twilight that made discerning the dead that might be hiding there difficult, but not impossible.

Fortunately, the man Yuri was looking for was no further than a few steps away from Yuri's entry point into the district.

"He said you'd be coming and that I had to give you a message." The blond man was standing there just on the edge of death, held there by a compulsion left by the necromancer's. "You are the Abhorsen, yes?" He sounded wary and terrified… and alive.

The necromancer had tethered the man's spirit here, but if Yuri could work quickly, then he could prevent his death from being permanent. As far as the Charter was concerned, this man could still be saved.

Yet… Yuri frowned. Why hadn't he sensed that in life?

"Yes, I'm the Abhorsen." Immediately, Yuri ducked the blond man's attack with a Charter-sword, and then flipped Saraneth so that she rang loudly before the handle smacked soundly into Yuri's palm. He completed the pattern quickly, the sounds locking the man in place.

"Sorry," the blond man whispered, looking ashamed.

"The bells are representative of the Free Magic beings who created the Charter and are meant to borrow from what power was left over. No human can resist that." At least, no human not descended of the bloodlines of those Charter Makers, not that the knight needed to know that. "Was there anything else, aside from attacking me, that you were meant to do?"

"Just warn you off. He said… he said he had no wish to harm you and that his only aim is to punish human evil. He… seemed to know you. Called you Yuri Lowell."

Yuri swore softly under his breath, not liking the possibilities here. "Do you know which bells he used to place the compulsion on you?" Yuri asked.

"I think it's the same one you just used. And a smaller one, to make me speak."

"Good. Sounds like Saraneth and Dyrim, then. Shouldn't be any nasty lingering compulsions left. Just to be sure, I'm going to use these two bells – Saraneth and Kibeth – to send you walking back into life. The Charter still registers you as alive and, once you're out of death, if there are any remaining compulsions then they should fade quickly. Are you okay with that?" Yuri waited for the man to nod and then he flipped Kibeth over and began ringing Saraneth in tandem with it.

Jerkily, the blond man marched away. In moments, he was gone – alive once more – and Yuri sloshed out of the river of death after him.

Yuri opened his eyes and ice crystals flaked off his lashes. The Knight was watching him in curiosity, staying silent while Yuri carefully stowed his bells back into his bandoleer and tightened the straps that held the bells silent. Charter marks swarmed over the bell handles and the bandoleer itself, which could be fascinating to watch… and dizzying too. Yuri tended to ignore them.

"Well, the necromancer didn't lie about my name," Yuri finally said, looking up to meet the Knight's very blue eyes. "I'm Yuri Lowell, one of the Abhorsen." He held out his hand in greeting.

"Lieutenant Flynn Scifo," the man replied, shaking Yuri's hand with a warm, firm grip.

"Can you describe the necromancer who attacked you?"

"He… he didn't look exactly human anymore," Flynn answered. "His face was sort of… melted."

Wrinkling his nose, Yuri sighed. "Damn… he probably doesn't even realize what's happening to him. Necromantic arts have a tendency to warp the spirit. He's already been going around killing people, but if he's melting like that… well, what he did to you says it all. He's going to start enslaving the spirits of the people he kills soon."

"The power is addictive and corruptive, then?" Flynn nodded thoughtfully. "I guess that makes sense."

"So… I suppose you were chasing after this necromancer as well?" Yuri waited for the Knight to nod. "You really need to stop. He thinks he's a hero fighting for justice, not the monster he's become, and he will kill you next time."

"How are you any different?" The Knight accused.

Repede growled, then turned around, as if dismissing the Knight from his consideration.

"Just as my bells are bound by the unbroken Charter, so am I. If that's not good enough for you to draw the obvious distinctions for yourself, then I'm not going to waste time justifying myself to you," Yuri snapped harshly, standing up and heading towards the entrance of the cave, where the ice was starting to melt. "You're welcome, by the way. If I'd found you even half an hour later, you'd be dead permanently instead of just temporarily."

To be compared to someone who killed and murdered on a whim and stranded spirits in Death… Yuri didn't have to stick around and take this guy's ungrateful crap. If the necromancer knew who he was, then he was at a disadvantage. And the necromancer was trying to warn him off? Yuri had a sinking feeling that this person was someone he used to know, probably from before his apprenticeship with Raven.

"Wait!"

Yuri turned to look at the Knight. "What?"

"I'm sorry. That was a dishonorable thing for me to say. Please, allow me to come with you to apprehend this murderer."

"He's a necromancer and I'm an Abhorsen. I won't be apprehending him, Lieutenant. I'll be killing him." The law was clear in this case. If an Abhorsen believed a necromancer should be killed, then killing that necromancer was considered an execution of justice. A lot of Knights did not like that, believing that Abhorsen should not have such exceptions.

While Yuri could understand their point, they had to remember that an Abhorsen who abused their trade would wind up with a broken Charter-mark. The Charter kept Abhorsen in line; it was the more recent exceptions to the law that the nobility had written for themselves that the Knights ought to regard with suspicion, not the ancient exceptions created to honor the Charter itself.

Flynn's hands tightened and he glanced away. "I still wish to help you in this task."

Having the help of a Knight would, if nothing else, make dealing with the locals easier. People rarely trusted a person bearing the Seven Bells on sight, but with a Knight around there would fewer people demanding the right to test his Charter-mark to verify its authenticity. It always pissed him off when people did that; if the tables were turned, certainly they wouldn't want all and sundry touching their forehead, yet somehow they thought that they were entitled to be constantly questioning his devotion to the Charter.

That Flynn had a Charter-marked sword was useful too. If the necromancer did send a dead construct after them in life, then the Knight would be able to hold his own.

"Fine. But try not to make an ass of yourself again? My job is difficult enough without people treating me like I'm no better than what I fight. When Knights like yourself refuse to recognize the difference between an Abhorsen and a necromancer, all it does is spread further mistrust and fear of Abhorsen, which makes protecting people – which is as much my job as yours – all the more difficult. There are fewer and fewer Abhorsen because Imperials are spreading mistrust and fear of my profession instead of respecting your own laws." Yuri thought of his own recent, brief incarceration. Though the Charter-marks on his bandoleer were obvious and his own Charter-mark unbroken, he'd been arrested for merely possessing his bells in the last city he'd stopped in. Though it had only been an overnight stay before the local Captain, embarrassed by his subordinate's over-zealousness, had released him. He'd even stood back to let Yuri chew them out, briefly since he'd been in a rush, for delaying him in his pursuit of an actual necromancer.

Flynn winced, but nodded. "You have my word. I won't be a hindrance."

Yuri sighed and glanced down at Repede. The dog looked back and forth between the two men a few times before sneezing which, really, was the best vote of confidence Repede could offer.

"Alright. Pack your things, Lieutenant. Looks like you're going to be getting a crash course in how not to get killed by a necromancer."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And… that's as far as I could get before my plot bunny fizzled out. I just love the idea of Yuri being an Abhorsen and wielding the seven bells against evil necromancers, though, so I'll probably get back to this eventually. Right now, I imagine that the necromancer they're chasing is Zagi and it'll somehow lead to them uncovering evidence of Imperial corruption… but, yeah, it's all kinda vague. Obviously no pairings at the start, but because Fluri writes itself that would be the eventual ship. Maybe once I get around to re-reading the original three books (and the 'Across the Wall' short stories) so that I can finally catch up on the events of 'Clariel' and 'Goldenhand', something will come to me.


	33. Sick as a Dog

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration – What does Repede look like without his armor/weapon/chain leash anyway?
> 
> So, a while ago, Estelle (my dog - what? no, I'm not obsessed with Tales of Vesperia...) ate something she shouldn't have and I spent a long night at the emergency vet clinic while she was fed activated charcoal against her will. This story resulted from that event, though I only just came back to it in order to finish it up.

When Karol came racing into Flynn's office, Flynn assumed there was something wrong with Yuri. The kid's face was flushed from exertion and his eyes pinched with worry; Flynn felt his stomach knot up immediately.

What had happened? Was Yuri injured? Sick? Lost? Or...

"Repede's really sick," Karol panted out, skirting around a rather annoyed looking Sodia in order to drop into one of Flynn's chairs. "Yuri... Yuri thought you'd want to know and he's really... he's really freaked out. Well, as freaked out as Yuri gets, anyway."

There was a moment of relief that coursed through Flynn because Yuri was fine – _Yuri was fine_ , thank god – and then tension thrummed through Flynn again because Repede had never gotten sick enough for Yuri to be freaked out before.

"Yuri Lowell freaked out," Sodia muttered contemptuously, louder she added, "it's just a dog, Mr. Capel. I doubt Commandant..."

"Can my meeting this afternoon with Councilman Aurion be rescheduled?" Flynn asked, already knowing perfectly well that it could. Not that it would matter either way; Aurion was known for liking dogs, so he wasn't likely to take offense if he found out he'd been snubbed in favor of a sick warrior hound. Hell, he'd probably want to meet Repede himself.

"I... uh, yes, sir, it can be."

"Good. I'll also need Captain Leblanc to take over the inspection this afternoon. You'll need to find him and let him know." Flynn waited for Sodia to nod before adding, "I'm taking the rest of the day off. If anything important comes up, I'm sure you can manage." He turned to the kid and asked kindly, "do you need anything to drink, Karol? Or are you ready to head back now?"

"A little water first would be nice," Karol agreed while Flynn went to pour the kid some water from the pitcher he kept in the room.

Glancing at the frozen knight staring at them in shock, Flynn asked, "aren't you going to get the meeting rescheduled and let Leblanc know about the inspection?"

"Uh, right, sir..." Sodia turned to leave and the paused at the doorway. She glanced back at Flynn and opened her mouth, seemed to think better of it, and snapped her mouth shut again before hurrying out into the hallway.

* * *

Yuri told himself that he wasn't freaking out. He was just worried.

Very visibly worried.

"How's he doing?" Rita asked quietly, peering into the room from the barely open doorway.

"Which one?" Estelle responded sardonically, petting Repede absently.

"Either. Both."

Yuri shot them each a glare.

Estelle smiled back innocently. "Repede's finally started drinking water again and he's sitting up enough to drink it without making things worse, so that's a pretty big overall improvement. Yuri, as you can see, is still fretting like a worried parent... so he's fine."

"You know, I remember a time when you weren't this sassy," Yuri grumbled, scowling and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah. You've been a wonderful influence on me since then," Estelle agreed cheerfully. "Repede's recovering, Yuri. You need to rest. How do you think Repede will feel if he gets better only for you to get sick afterward?"

Rita snickered in amusement. "Right, well, you two keep at your nursemaiding and I'll head back to the lab. Let me know if you need anything, okay?" She paused and then hurried in, patted Repede on the head, then scurried back to the door. "Feel better, okay mutt?"

Repede wuffed a sort of pathetic affirmative as Rita shut the door on exit.

"How long has it been since Karol went to let Flynn know about Repede?" Estelle asked quietly as Yuri finally stopped his pacing and settled down on the floor beside her and the dog.

"Not long enough for him to be back yet," Yuri replied absently. "I hope the kid didn't run all the way. It's not that urgent." His worried eyes and tone belied his remark, however. For Yuri, it really was very urgent. He'd raised Repede from a puppy with Flynn's help; seeing Repede in distress when there was nothing he could do made Yuri feel helpless.

Yuri felt very much like a worried parent.

It wasn't the first time Repede had gotten sick, but generally it was a minor upset stomach. This was... this was different.

Sitting there quietly, Yuri just kept petting Repede and trying to think of nothing in particular. Estelle said that Repede would be fine. He'd be miserable a while longer, but he'd probably start eating again sometime tomorrow and until then...

Until then Repede's misery made Yuri miserable too.

When the door opened again, Flynn and Karol slipped inside. While Karol hovered at the doorway, Flynn settled on the floor beside Yuri.

"Hey Repede," Flynn said, reaching over to scratch behind the dog's ears. "I hear you ate something you shouldn't have. Gave everyone a scare, huh?"

Repede wuffled piteously.

"What have Yuri and I always said about eating strange plants?" Flynn asked the dog in all seriousness.

This time Repede made a grumbly noise, as if to ask 'are you really going to lecture me now? Can't it wait until I feel better?'

"Flynn..." Yuri sighed and slumped against Flynn's shoulder, relaxing as he felt the blond's hand rub gently against the small of his back even as Flynn's other hand continued to pet the dog. "I guess Karol filled you in on what happened?"

"Yeah," Flynn agreed, glancing up at the kid with a smile. "Thanks for getting me so quickly," he added.

"You ran the whole way, didn't you?" Yuri asked, amused.

"Well, Repede's important," Karol muttered flushing. "I... I should probably head back to the guild house." He fled the room, still not entirely comfortable with Flynn the way he was with Yuri and Estelle.

"He doesn't like me, does he?" Flynn asked.

"What?" Estelle's eyes widened. "No, that's not true at all!"

"She's right," Yuri told him. "He's intimidated by you. If you'd like I could always shove you in the fountain in front of him and see if that makes him less intimidated?" he added innocently.

Flynn huffed in annoyance and stopped petting Repede in order to swat Yuri lightly on the forehead. "Better not," he grumbled. "I'll drag you in the fountain with me."

"Hmmm... maybe I'll wait for the weather to finish warming up first," Yuri mused with a laugh.

Dropping a kiss on the top of Repede's forehead, Estelle stood up. "I'm going to take a walk and clear my head. Flynn, Yuri barely touched his lunch, so if you can get him to eat a sandwich that would be great." She hurried away before Yuri could react.

"Traitor."

"Finish your sandwich," Flynn told him, "or I'll 'improve' it and then make you eat it."

"Tyrant." But Yuri got up and reclaimed his sandwich from earlier before slumping back down beside Flynn in order to munch on the food and still be by his dog.

"So, Karol told me Repede ate some plant he shouldn't have and had an allergic reaction to it," Flynn said, carefully. "Not much detail, there."

"Is that your subtle way of asking for elaboration?" Yuri asked between bites.

"Yeah." Flynn's hands landed on Yuri's back and started massaging the tense point between his shoulders.

"I wasn't paying attention and Repede started snacking on... hell, I don't even know what it was, but Repede must have thought it smelled good. The next thing I knew he was hacking and couldn't breathe and..." Yuri's voice caught and he took a moment to collect his thoughts. "If Estelle hadn't been there, Repede would have died."

Repede whined softly and shuffled closer to Yuri in order to lick his hand.

Running his hands up and down Yuri's spine, Flynn found another spot on his lower back to massage the kinks out of. "That feels really good," Yuri mumbled, sandwich forgotten again as he leaned into Flynn's ministrations.

"It's not your fault. You know that, right?"

"Feels like my fault," Yuri admitted in a small voice. Flynn brushed the back of his fingers against Yuri's cheek. There was wetness there and Yuri realized that he was crying. "Shit..." he reached up to paw at the tear tracks only for Flynn to stop him by lacing their fingers together.

"Hey..." Flynn pulled Yuri close and pressed a kiss against Yuri's hair. "It's going to be okay."

"I know... I know, I'm being stupid..." Yuri turned and burrowed against Flynn's shoulder.

"Not stupid. Just scared. If I'd been there, I'd have been scared too," Flynn told him. "He's our puppy."

A disgruntled noise came from the dog.

"Face it, Repede. We're always going to think of you as our puppy," Flynn teased. Then, more serious, he asked Yuri, "are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah. Just... just give me a minute."

"Take all the time you need."

* * *

Leblanc poked his head in the doorway. "Sir?"

Flynn looked up from his silent vigil over his sleeping dog and boyfriend. "Yes, Captain?"

"I just... wanted to check in, see if everything was okay?" He glanced at Yuri anxiously.

"Yuri's fine," Flynn reassured him quietly. "Repede ate something he was allergic to and gave everyone a scare, apparently."

"I can imagine." Leblanc paused, uncertainly, then added, "Lieutenant Sodia seems upset about your taking the afternoon off. She seems to be of the opinion that you're... neglecting your duties without cause."

Frowning, Flynn let his fingers trail soothingly through Yuri's hair. "She's been bothering me for weeks to take time off. Now that I do, she's upset? I know she wasn't thrilled that my dog being sick rates as a family emergency, but I figured that was just because she's not a pet-person."

"I... think she views Repede as solely Yuri Lowell's dog; it doesn't occur to her that he's yours too."

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll discuss this with her later," Flynn decided. If she was upset over the rescheduled meeting, Flynn didn't understand why. Councilman Aurion's love of dogs was the first thing that came up when people described him (that and his stoicism); if anything came of this at all it would likely be the Councilman insisting that he meet Repede himself. Still, there were other matters to discuss with Leblanc and no use wondering what Sodia's problem was until he could ask her in person. "How did the inspection go?"

* * *

Yuri listened to Flynn speak with Leblanc without really registering the words they were saying. He'd curled up with his head on Flynn's lap after finally finishing his lunch.

Repede's mishap had been late the previous evening, half a continent away, and Yuri felt like he'd been running at full tilt ever since. He'd carried Repede into the Fiertia with Raven's help and then back off the boat and into town once Ba'ul arrived in the morning, having flown even faster than normal. Everyone was worried for the dog, it seemed.

Still, it was nice to doze with his hand on Repede's paw and Flynn's soothing presence surrounding him...

"Come on, Yuri, get up," Flynn murmured, giving Yuri a little shake as the door shut, signifying Leblanc leaving. "You'll get a crick in your neck if you stay like that too much longer."

"Comfy," Yuri grumbled, letting Flynn prod him into a sitting position despite his protest.

"Comfier on the bed, I promise." Flynn stood up, pulling Yuri along with him.

Rolling his shoulders, Yuri craned his neck from side to side and then winced when that only turned the ache there into pain. "I think I've already got a crick in my neck," Yuri admitted, sitting down on the bed.

Flynn sat beside him and began rubbing Yuri's neck. There was a flare of pain and then it began to ease away under Flynn's care.

"Sorry I've been so useless today."

"You haven't been sleeping well lately, have you?" Flynn asked, sounding like he already knew the answer.

"Not really," Yuri replied anyway, letting himself get guided into actually laying down. "Been busy and don't sleep well in the desert to begin with. Too hot there, can't settle... then we were finally on our way back and all the temperature changes and timezone changes always screw with my sleeping too. Couldn't sleep anyway after Repede ate that stupid thing… and I always sleep better with you anyway."

"That sounds like an invitation," Flynn declared, kicking off his boots. He'd already removed his armor earlier, stacking it neatly in a corner, so he settled into the narrow bed alongside Yuri and teasingly nuzzled Yuri's neck.

"Ack… stop, that tickles," Yuri grumbled and squirmed, but still smiled all the same.

Flynn laughed and then pulled Yuri close again. From the floor a soft thumping of Repede's tail could be heard and Flynn grinned, lazily stroking Yuri's hair once more. Sounded like someone was feeling a little better.


	34. Happy Yuletide

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration – Santa Suit, Mrs. Claus Outfit, Yuri's Improv costume

_First Yule After the Adephago_ s

Yuri was stuffing the front of his Santa suit when Flynn arrived at his room, knocking once and announcing himself before letting himself in.

"Hey, Flynn," Yuri greeted with a grin. "What do you think?"

"You're going to look ridiculous with a beard," Flynn declared with a laugh, giving Yuri a chaste kiss.

"Oh, really?" Eyes glittering with devious mischief, he said, "I promised all the kids you'd be Mrs. Claus."

"What! Yuri!" Flynn blushed bright red, but before he could say anything more, there was a knocking at the door and Judy peeked in.

"Oh, darn, you're already mostly dressed," Judy mock pouted. She was wearing the Mrs. Claus outfit. "Hi, Flynn. I was hoping to steal a look at your boy-toy, but looks like Yuri was too fast getting changed."

"Hello, Judy," Flynn greeted, smiling at her and ignoring her teasing. He turned to look back at Yuri and gave him a flat look. "Jerk," he muttered, smacking Yuri's shoulder.

"I'm sure he deserves that, but do try to leave him in one piece. Think of the children's disappointment if Santa dies before Christmas."

Flynn hummed thoughtfully. "If the suit's untouched, I could always wear it… for the children's sake."

"Now who's being a jerk?" Yuri asked with a snicker. "I'm almost ready, Judy. Should be down in a couple of minutes, okay? Just have to finish stuffing the front."

"Sure thing. Also, maybe you should consider locking your door next time," Judy smirked, "unless you two are in to voyeurism..."

"Out, out!" Yuri threw some of the suit's fluff at her and she shut the door, laughing as she disappeared.

Flynn smacked Yuri's shoulder again, but a little lighter this time. "You are incorrigible."

"I try." Yuri grinned, "so does that mean, even if I can get the outfit away from her later, I won't be getting a free show tonight?"

Flynn huffed in annoyance, his cheeks turning pink again. "You've been really naughty just now. I'm not sure you deserve it." He crossed his arms and looked away, blushing beet red.

"What can I say? It was just too good an opportunity to pass up." Yuri retrieved the fluff from the floor and proceeded to shove it into the suit. "Do I look like a jolly old soul yet?"

"Your hair is a little too dark to be considered gray and you're lacking the beard," Flynn critiqued. "Also, not stuffed enough yet."

"Work in progress," Yuri assured him. "Anyway, if I did get the outfit… would you be okay with wearing it?"

Flynn sighed and toyed with Yuri's hat. "Well, you're usually the one who wears skirts when we..."

Yuri interrupted Flynn with a slightly-less-than-chaste kiss. "If it makes you uncomfortable, then don't worry about it. Just because I think you'd look cute in the Mrs. Claus outfit doesn't mean I want to force you to wear it when you don't want to. Just because I enjoying wearing women's clothing to get a rise out of you doesn't mean you have to reciprocate the action."

"It's not so much that I'm uncomfortable with the idea of… dressing up for you," Flynn responded thoughtfully, "it's more that I'm nervous about the idea."

"Well, think about it over, but not too hard." Yuri pushed the last of the fluff into the suit and zipped it up the rest of the way and fastening the buttons securely. Then he pulled his hair up and covered it with a white haired wig that he pinned into place. A fake beard was added next, followed by the hat, which was also pinned down. "Jolly and old enough now?"

"Perfect," Flynn assured him with a smile. "Though, you're still a jerk for earlier."

"Very naughty," Yuri agreed with a leering look made ridiculous by his getup. "Just imagine how much naughtier I'll be later."

"Out, out," Flynn echoed Yuri's earlier admonition, waving the raven-haired man out of his own room. Flynn followed behind, thinking things over. As long as it was just for Yuri… he really didn't mind dressing up.

* * *

Flynn slipped on the skirt and decided not to bother seeing if the stockings and shoes fit. He looked in the mirror and wrinkled his nose.

He looked absolutely ridiculous. How was it that Yuri could look sexy in women's clothing but Flynn looked like an idiot playing dress up?

Crossing his arms nervously, Flynn rubbed his arms and shifted uncomfortably. It was chilly in his room, as the fire had yet to permeate the air with its heat. Why wasn't Yuri here yet? Letting Yuri see him like this was the whole point and if he didn't hurry up then Flynn was just going to put the outfit away and go lay naked in bed instead.

That seemed like a lot more appealing option after all.

Flynn shifted again and then felt the skirt swish about his thighs. Glancing down, Flynn purposefully swished the skirt. It actually… kind of felt nice.

He twirled around this time, feeling the fabric swirl around him, the ends lifting up and…

"Oh, that's nice, do it again."

Flynn whirled around in embarrassment, his cheeks heating up even as the skirt flared up again. "Oh… I, uh, didn't hear you come in." He felt something sort of clench in his stomach at the way Yuri was looking at him. Desire darkened the raven-haired man's eyes from a deep violet to near-black while a light flush painted his cheeks.

Somehow, it was a little annoying to realize that Yuri still managed to look more effeminate than Flynn when Flynn was the one wearing a damned skirt. Sometimes Yuri was just too pretty.

"I look stupid," Flynn muttered ducking his head.

"I'd accuse you of fishing for complements, but you really have no idea how good you look, do you?" Yuri teased, striding forward to trap Flynn in a heated, passionate kiss. "You look amazing. Absolutely edible. I want you in so many ways; I don't know where to start," Yuri murmured between kisses.

Flynn hummed thoughtfully. "I don't suppose you want to start by stripping this off of me?"

A sly grin slid over Yuri's face and he shook his head. "I'm going to make you cum in that," he declared, before sliding down sinuously and slipping his head under the skirt. "Mmmm… commando, Commandant… how naughty," Yuri teased, the words sending puffs of air against Flynn's cock.

"Yuri..." Flynn whimpered, bracing his hands against Yuri's shoulder's. "Tease," he accused when Yuri kissed the tip and then turned his attention to Flynn's sensitive inner thighs. Yuri's soft hair was brushing against Flynn's rising arousal with every kiss and nip Yuri gave him.

"Only if I don't follow through," Yuri corrected, sucking a little hickey into place. "I have every intention of following through." He paused and then added, "if you're really uncomfortable about the outfit..."

"It's fine," Flynn interrupted quickly. "Really. Get back to what you were..." Flynn trailed off with a moan as Yuri turned his attentions to Flynn's other thigh.

Once Yuri decided Flynn had been tormented enough, he swallowed down Flynn's erection, hands tightening on Flynn's hips when the blond's legs threatened to buckle. Though Flynn's legs did give out after not too long and he ended up sitting on the floor, curled up in Yuri's arms, panting as he tried to catch his breath.

"So, enjoyed that I take it?" Yuri teased, kissing along Flynn's neck.

"Yeah..."

"Interested in heading to the bedroom where I can strip this off of you piece by piece?" Yuri asked, and then nipped at Flynn's ear to turn the blond's 'yes' into a breathy whine. "So, if I'm naughty enough will that mean that I have to take a turn playing Mrs. Claus?"

"Definitely," Flynn agreed, already imagining what a sight that would make.

* * *

 

_Second Yule After the Adephagos_

Flynn was the one dressing up as Santa this year. Judy, however, had a cold and couldn't leave Dahngrest, so Estelle was stepping in. Yuri had offered, exhibiting absolutely no embarrassment at all at the idea of appearing before the kids in drag, and Hanks would have taken him up on it, but Flynn had taken Yuri aside and, on no uncertain terms, explained why it would be a bad idea for Yuri to wear that outfit in public while Flynn was dressed as Santa.

For Flynn's peace of mind it was really for the best that Yuri not be dressed in an outfit that… well, the memories attached to both of them dressing as Mrs. Claus…

Okay, so maybe Flynn floundered for an explanation while turning increasingly red while making references to the previous year's Christmas Eve and Yuri capitulated to Flynn's embarrassed request with much laughter. The point is that Yuri told Hanks that Estelle would be absolutely devastated if she learned she'd been passed over for the role of Mrs. Claus. Hanks was more than happy to have the Vice-Empress acting as Mrs. Claus for the Lower Quarter children and chose (wisely) not to question why Yuri was backing out after all.

Yuri had then pouted to Flynn about not getting to dress up as anything and eventually disappeared into his room for a while before showing back up in a ridiculous demon outfit.

"Oh, isn't that your costume from the play we were in?" Estelle asked.

Grinning, Yuri bounced on the balls of his feet. "I'm Krampus," he declared.

"Who?" She asked.

"Krampus is Santa Claus' brother and opposite," Flynn explained. "Santa rewards the good children; Krampus punishes the bad children."

"Oooh..." Estelle frowned, "will the kids be okay with that? I wouldn't want them to think they have anything to worry about..."

As if on cue, Ted came scurrying into the Inn; the first kid in the coming rush. "Oh, cool, Yuri! Krampus, right?"

"Yup!" Yuri popped the 'p' sound at the end. "Unfortunately, not enough bad kids around for Krampus to have much to do but sit around a look menacing. Muahahaha."

"Menacing, right," Ted rolled his eyes. "You keep telling yourself that, Yuri."

"Do you hear the way he treats me?" Yuri asked Flynn.

"Sounds about right to me," Flynn teased. "Don't worry, Lady Estellise, the kids will all recognize that Yuri's just being silly. It's not exactly the scariest costume in the world and they all usually recognize us in these outfits anyway. Yuri just wants to be able to take part in handing out the gifts."

Estelle giggled while Yuri hotly denied that accusation. He was here to give out coal and switches to bad children. The fact that there were no coal and switches just meant there were no bad children and thus he might as well lend a hand to the Claus family… if they asked nicely and stopped accusing him of silly things like 'wanting to give out presents to good children.'


	35. Scooby-Dooby-Doo!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So guess what I've been watching lately. ;)
> 
> Inspiration - Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated
> 
> Notes - Real world AU

Yuri grinned and sidled up to Flynn, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend's shoulders from behind. 

"You have your 'plotting something' smile on," Flynn observed, leaning back into Yuri's embrace.

"Nothing bad, I promise," Yuri assured him, nuzzling against Flynn's hair.  "Estelle and I had an idea."

"Oh, no," Flynn huffed in mock terror, "the very reason I never wanted you two to meet.  I'll never be safe from your weird ideas now."

"I think I've even managed to talk Repede into going along with our plan," Yuri continued, pretending to ignore Flynn's interruption, though he did swat the blond's arm lightly.  "We've come up with a theme for our Halloween costumes for next weeks party.  Yours, mine, hers, and Rita's."

"And Repede's too apparently," Flynn added, sounding amused.  "Alright, what's this big idea?"

"Estelle as Daphne, Rita as Velma, Repede and I as Scooby and Shaggy..." tugging something out of his pocket, Yuri tied that something loosely around Flynn's neck, "and you'd be Fred."

Flynn looked down and tugged at the ascot loosely tied about his neck.  "If you have an actual costume in mind for Repede beyond just calling him 'Scooby', you realize he's going to bite you... right?"

"Yeah, probably," Yuri agreed, "but I'm going to see if he'll let me stick a 'call me Scooby' sign on his back anyway."

"You are lucky that dog loves you," Flynn declared.  "So... basically we're going as the gay version of Mystery Incorporated?"

"Yup.  Shaggy and Fred instead of Daphne and Fred, with a little Daphne/Velma thrown in for good measure."  Yuri snickered, adding, "it'll be the easiest costumes to shop for we could think of at last minute.  I think Estelle already has a purple dress she plans to modify since she can actually sew, but the rest of us should be able to cobble something together from stuff we already own."

"You don't have a plain green shirt," Flynn reminded him.

"Grabbed one on sale at Target on the way home," Yuri countered.

Flynn nodded thoughtfully.  "Where did the ascot come from?  Pretty sure Target doesn't sell those."

"Estelle made it."

"So she's really set on this plan."  If Estelle was already making things, then there was definitely no talking her out of the plan.  Not that Flynn minded much; he'd always liked _Scooby-Doo_.

"She put Puss-in-Boot's wide kitty-eyes from _Shrek_ to shame while convincing Rita to go along with it."

"Sounds fun... want to raid my closet to see if I have everything for my costume, then?"  Flynn asked, pulling away with a grin and heading towards the bedroom.

Yuri nodded, following along though his eyes were gazing a little lower than usual as he watched Flynn walk ahead of him.  "Maybe try everything on... to be sure it all still fits and works together?"

"Yuri... you just want to watch me strip my clothes off," Flynn huffed petulantly, ruining his mock-irritation with a laugh.

"I can return the favor if you want," Yuri wheedled innocently, shutting the door behind them.


	36. In Which Flynn Takes Issue With Yuri’s Sartorial Choices

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one isn't really inspired by any special outfits, but it was Flynn snarking at Yuri about Yuri's lack of protective gear. So I figured it would fit well here.

The truth was, Flynn didn’t actually care if Yuri rejoined the Knights or not. He really, really didn’t. He just wanted Yuri to be doing something he actually cared about. Whether it made him angry or happy or whatever didn’t matter, so long as Yuri snapped out of his slump. Because working at the Comet Inn as a cook – no matter how good Yuri was at it – was clearly boring Yuri to tears.

So Flynn pushed and pushed in hopes that, maybe, Yuri would pick something else to do with his life – something that did actually make him happy, or at least wasn’t conducive to spending hours at a time sitting in his window, staring over the Lower Quarter, and brooding like Byronic hero. Melancholy melodrama just did not suit Yuri in the least… and it was grating on Flynn’s nerves. Hell, at this point Flynn would gratefully accept Yuri doing the exact opposite of joining the knights, by joining a guild instead, if it meant that the next time he saw Yuri, his friend had that ridiculous grin on his face that Flynn missed so much.

Well… careful what you wish for.

Standing in the City of the Guilds itself – Dahngrest – and staring at Don Whitehorse, leader of the Union, it was about all Flynn could to keep his emotions off his face. Because, dammit, Yuri was supposed to have been safe.

War had nearly broken out between the Guilds and the Empire (might still break out if the peace talks between Master Ioder and Don Whitehorse didn’t go well, though Flynn had no doubt that the two would hammer out something mutually beneficial in the end) and Yuri, tucked away in the Union jail after taking Flynn’s place there, should have been perfectly safe. So, naturally, Yuri was no longer in the jail cell. Or even in Dahngrest. No, the Don let Yuri out and tasked him with tracking down the leader of the Blood Alliance, the guild behind the narrowly averted war. And Yuri did track him down… only to almost lose him. The only reason he didn’t was because the maniac Flynn called his best friend jumped onto the back of a dragon and let its rider direct them away towards a giant tower in the middle of nowhere, just north of Dahngrest.

The dragon rider was dressed in head to toe armor, according to Mage Mordio. So at least one of the two dragon-riding freaks was attired appropriately for storming the thrice-damned tower. Naturally, that person was not Yuri Lowell. Where any normal person would storm the enemy stronghold in armor so that the enemy doesn’t, say, poke all of their vital bits with sharp implements, Yuri was just charging ahead in his normal, everyday outfit. Which, coincidentally, did not protect any of Yuri’s vital bits from sharp implements.

So it was with great effort that Flynn kept his face from betraying his extreme frustration with his best friend.

If Yuri was alive when Flynn got to him, Flynn might very well strangle the moron himself.

The second Flynn was dismissed by Master Ioder (who, judging by the look on his face, knew exactly what was running through Flynn’s head and thought it was hilarious), he grabbed some supplies and headed for Ghasfrost. He was not surprised in the least when Yuri’s new friends, including Lady Estellise, joined him. Flynn was pretty sure that he wasn’t the only one who wanted to smack Yuri a few times for being a reckless idiot. (He was surprised when the Don’s lieutenant, Raven, sneaked away to join them, mostly because Flynn couldn’t tell if Raven was joining to keep an eye on both Lady Estellise and himself or if it was because the man was actually worried about Yuri… or maybe some combination of the two.)

It really figured, of course, that when they actually arrived at Ghasfrost, Yuri had already escaped… and recruited what was possibly the only Krityan with blood knight tendencies on the entire planet. She was scantily clad too, even by Krityan standards, but as was normal, Yuri didn’t seem particularly bothered by, or interested in, the woman’s attire… or what lay underneath the attire.

“Yuri! You’re okay!” Flynn caught the raven-haired man’s attention and very nearly smiled in response when Yuri lit up at the sight of him.

“Hey Flynn, here to join the party?” Yuri’s smile flickered when Flynn continued to scowl at him. “Okay, fine. What has you so bothered now?”

“What has me so bothered?” Flynn asked, tone slightly mocking now. “I don’t know. Could it be that my friend – who I left in what I thought was relative safety – decided it would be a great idea to storm the Blood Alliance’s stronghold in Dahngrest without any protective gear. No, Yuri,” he cut off the retort before Yuri could do anything more than open his mouth, “being armed with a sword does not count as ‘protective gear’. Armor counts as protective gear. Shields count as protective gear.”

“Shields get in the way of my...”

Flynn interrupted with a pitch-perfect imitation of Yuri’s voice, “unnecessarily flashy fighting style that shows off my ambidexterity.”

“Flynn.” Yuri’s eyes narrowed and the two of them scowled at each other.

Someone… or perhaps several someones… were clearly trying to keep from laughing. Flynn did not look back to see who the culprit(s) might be.

(“He’s really good at that,” Raven stage whispered.

“Well, they grew up together,” Lady Estellise replied, also stage whispering. “Yuri probably does a fairly decent Flynn imitation too.”)

“Then,” Flynn finally started speaking again, “when the leader of the Blood Alliance got away from you, instead of doing what any rational person would do, which is regroup with your allies by the way, you decide that the best possible action you could take is to abandon your team to go jump on a dragon and fly after him!” Yuri actually flinched a little when Flynn said the word ‘abandon’. “Who, exactly, was supposed to be watching your back when you dropped in on the top of a tower crewed entirely by members of the Blood Alliance?!”

“Well, the Dragon Rider… and now Judy.”

The blue haired woman looked amused, but held up her hands and shrugged at Flynn. Sort of a ‘he’s not wrong, but I want nothing to do with this fight in particular’ type motion. So Flynn just stared at Yuri until he wilted a little.

“I didn’t exactly start this journey planning to leave the continent, much less wind up involved in Guild politics, Flynn. Or, you know, have time to pack anything. What armor I do have is still in Zaphias.”

“Because you’d actually use it if you had taken it with you?” Flynn sighed when Yuri unknowingly copied Judy’s shrug. “Why is it that our dog has more common sense and battle armor than you do?” he asked, despairing of the answer and half-hoping Yuri would ignore the question as rhetorical.

The dog in question yawned at them to show his disdain for human issues.

“Would it make you feel better if I looked around the shops at Dahngrest to see what kind of armor is available when we get back?” Yuri asked in a conciliatory tone of voice.

“What would make me feel better is if you actually meant you’d both buy and use the armor and if you weren’t planning to storm a tower full of the Blood Alliance between now and returning to Dahngrest,” Flynn griped.

Yuri, however, just grinned. “So, speaking of storming the tower...”


	37. Yuri Lowell the Raptor King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Are you planing on creating a new raptor pack for Jurassic World?"
> 
> Ioder smiled easily, took a sip of his coffee, and then nodded affirmatively. "It's in consideration. We'd need a trainer for them, however... and we'd like to hire you for that position."
> 
> The raptors will probably try to eat him one day (possibly even succeed), but the experience of raising and training them... so worth it. After a little negotiating - not nearly as much as he'd have thought it would take - Yuri even gets Judy included in the job offer because she's the best co-worker he's ever had and if she finds out he got hired on to work with raptors and didn't at least try to get her included, she'd probably kill him herself... in front of the raptors, of course, in order to gain their approval as a superior predator.
> 
> Judy was a bit scary that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because Dinosaurs... what other reason do I need?
> 
> Inspiration - Jurassic Park/World t-shirts all around. 

Technically, it all started when Yuri wrote a paper on velociraptors for his doctorate thesis.  But Yuri doesn't count that because he didn't actually meet his first dinosaur until years later, when he got a job offer in the mail from Ingen... which he, rather understandably, assumed was a hoax.  But he called anyway, mostly because Judy was pushy.  It turned out, however, that the phone number provided was a genuine Ingen number after all and, after Yuri hesitantly gave his name to the HR lady who answered, he found himself talking with Ioder Huerassien himself.  

Which... wow.  Okay, not a hoax.

By the end of the conversation, Yuri was talked into a face to face meeting the following day at a nearby coffee shop, since there weren't any local branches of Ingen within a reasonable driving distance for him. Then, the next morning, Yuri walked into the agreed upon Starbucks Cafe, ordered a cup of overpriced flavored coffee, and settled at a table with the young entrepreneur... where Yuri then proceeded to spend a good two and half hours explaining how he came to his conclusions about velociraptor socialization.  He hadn't been grilled this in depth over his work since he had to defend his thesis to earn his PhD and he's a little surprised by just how many of the little details he actually remembers and just how much fun discussing his theories about dinosaurs really is.

But, eventually, Yuri can't stand the suspense anymore and he asks the obvious question.  "Are you planing on creating a new raptor pack for Jurassic World?"

Ioder smiled easily, took a sip of his coffee, and then nodded affirmatively.  "It's in consideration.  We'd need a trainer for them, however... and we'd like to hire you for that position."

"We?" Yuri questioned.  It didn't sound like Ioder was referring to his company.

"My cousin, Estelle, is in charge of the park itself and apparently she's already based some of the training of our more dangerous predators off your research on the limitations of pack theory.  If she finds out I've managed to hire you for the raptor project - if you say yes, that is - then the first thing she'll do when she meets you is ask for your autograph... or try to hug you.  I'm not really sure."

Yuri's a little wary about the idea of some stranger wanting to hug him because of his research - he hadn't considered his work to be something anyone would turn into a fangirl over - but he winds up agreeing anyway.  It's a chance to work with real velociraptors, or as close as science can come to recreating them anyway.

They'll probably try to eat him one day (possibly even succeed), but the experience of raising and training them... so worth it.

After a little negotiating - not nearly as much as he'd have thought it would take - Yuri even gets Judy included in the job offer because she's the best co-worker he's ever had and if she finds out he got hired on to work with raptors and didn't at least try to get her included, she'd probably kill him herself... in front of the raptors, of course, in order to gain their approval as a superior predator.

Judy was a bit scary that way. 

* * *

Estelle did not hug Yuri, which was a relief.  She did, however, personally escort Judy and him to all the different dinosaur enclosures, introduce them to at least half the handlers on the island along the way, and then take them to meet the geneticist developing their 'strain' of raptor.

Rita Mordio was something else.  She was... ridiculously young for a college student never mind a multiple PhD in the business of making dinosaurs.  But Yuri managed to refrain from saying that out loud.  Instead he went straight to asking what was going in the raptors aside from, well... raptors.  When she started listing out scientific names, Yuri noticed that Estelle had a tell for when she didn't recognize a species and so Yuri would, absently, fill in the regular name for the species.

From the sound of things, Rita was using more bird DNA than lizard DNA, which made way more sense to Yuri than the original park's use of frogs and lizards.  Feathered dinosaurs were way cooler looking than non-feathered ones, in his opinion anyway.  

"More authentic, too," Judy agreed, making Yuri realize he'd commented out loud.  "The original dinosaurs would have been feathered, after all."

"Exactly," Rita agreed, seeming to relax a little.  "The other geneticists all want to pander to people's expectations of what a dinosaur should look like, but most people expect giant, cold-blooded lizards and that's just wrong."

"I'd think breaking expectations about dinosaurs would prove to be a greater draw than getting a stereotype anyway," Yuri observed mildly, to Rita's apparent approval.  "It sounds like your raptor mix should be more sociable, and trainable, than the old Jurassic Park raptors, or the ones still running wild on the island next door, but how much of a toning down are we looking at?"

"Um... well, they'll be smaller since we'll be using actual velociraptor DNA this time around."  Rita paused, and the flushed a little.  "Uh, well, little known fact, but the DNA used in the original park was actually misidentified as velociraptor when it was, in fact, utahraptor.  Utahraptors were bigger and, most probably, more aggressive.  I figured that out when I compared some of the old samples to the new ones and identified the differences."  Rita shrugged, adding, "Dr. Garruda, however, died during the original park's implosion, so... there's no telling if it was an honest mistake or done on purpose."

Yuri nodded thoughtfully.  "So these new raptors should, hopefully, be turkey sized?"

"That's the plan," Rita agreed.  She pulled out a folder and handed it over to him.  "This has a more in-depth look at my genetic selections for the raptors and why I picked which traits.  If you've got any further questions, my email is in there.  I may not check it as often as certain people might like, but I will get back to you."

"Thanks," Yuri replied sincerely, already flipping through and batting Judy's hand away when she tried to make him turn the pages faster.  

"Okay, well... ready to see where your offices will be and the location where the enclosure will be set up.  I'd like for you two to go over the enclosure designs with the architect so that any modifications to size and stability can be decided on before construction starts."  Estelle started to lead the duo out, when Rita tapped her shoulder.  "Yes, Rita?"

Rita blushed and looked away.  "Never mind."

Estelle frowned, looking a little disappointed.  "Ah... okay..."

Judy glanced between the two women speculatively and Yuri's sense of danger sparked.  He just knew she was going to play matchmaker there.  It wasn't any of his business, though, and hopefully Judy would let it stay that way.

* * *

The island's architect, who worked for the park itself instead of being an outside contractor, was a man named Raven Schwann.  He'd designed over half of the park's buildings, and had a good handle on how sturdy the enclosure would need to be to contain the raptors.  What he didn't get was a sense of scale.

The initial designs were too small by half, which Raven accepted, noting the info down for redesign even as he asked about why the raptors would need so much space.

Yuri decided he liked the guy when his reaction to Yuri and Judy's description of a raptor's running speed and hunting habits was a grin and 'cool' instead of nitpicking at the space requirements.  

Next they moved on to the 'corral' design.  It would be a place where the raptors would be enclosed for medical treatments.  Some of it would have to wait to be implemented once they had an idea of the actual size of the raptors, but most of it could be constructed immediately, attached to one side of the main enclosure.

When the shop talk was done for the day, with Raven promising to have updated plans to go over with them early the following week, Judy started flirting with Raven in earnest.  Rolling his eyes and wondering at her type, Yuri left them to it and pulled up the map Estelle had given him with the employee apartments, the 'grocery store', and the restaurant locations marked on it.  He'd only seen his apartment long enough to drop his bags off in the front room, so he headed back to do a little unpacking.

Pizza was apparently deliverable even on the island (there were both Pizza Hut and Dominos to choose from), so Yuri was in the middle of hanging up his clothes in a surprisingly large walk in closet (Yuri didn't know what he'd do with all the left over space) when his doorbell rang.

As he was paying the pizza guy, Yuri noticed his neighbor, a handsome looking blue-eyed blond, come walking down the hall.  Once the bill was settled and the delivery guy was leaving, Yuri set the pizza inside the doorway and proceeded to catch his new neighbor's attention.  "Hi, I'm Yuri Lowell," he greeted.

"Flynn Scifo," the blond replied, reaching over briefly to shake Yuri's hand.  "I've heard about you.  You're one of the new raptor trainers.  I'm still shocked they're going through with that, after all the horror stories from the old park."

"Yeah, I admit my first thought after hearing about this job, you know once I realized it wasn't a joke from one of my colleagues, was that the raptors were going to want to eat me at some point."  Yuri grinned, "but it seemed like too good an opportunity to turn down.  Working with real dinosaurs... this is literately a childhood dream come true."

Flynn laughed, the sound warm and pleasant.  "I know exactly what you mean.  I work with the pachyasaurs and there are times when I just stop and think 'holy shit, real dinosaurs, how did I get so lucky'."  Gesturing to the door across the hall from Yuri's he added, "feel free to knock if you need help with anything."

Impulsively, Yuri said, "if you don't mind being bribed with pizza and the promise that I've got _Call of Duty_ packed away in one of the easier to reach boxes, I could use help reorganizing the furniture in the living room.  It's great these places come furnished, but it'd be even better if the couch weren't in the most awkward place possible."

"What kind of pizza?"  Flynn asked, already walking over to come inside.  

"Large supreme," Yuri told him, grinning and retrieving the box, then hurrying out of the way.

"Sounds perfect."  Flynn grinned and Yuri felt his stomach do a little flip.

Sternly, Yuri told himself that Flynn's meltingly gorgeous smile just meant the guy was friendly.  Judy might be okay with jumping into a new job and a new relationship all at once, but Yuri wasn't.  So even if Flynn was interested - which he probably wasn't, Yuri reminded himself insistently - Yuri still wanted to actually settle in for a few months before engaging in something more complicated than friendships.

Of course... that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the view.

* * *

Turned out Flynn had a girlfriend.  Or at least a friend who was a girl and clearly desired to be his girlfriend.  It wasn't really clear if Flynn was dating Sodia or on the cusp of dating her, but she was very territorial of Flynn and had quickly picked up on Yuri's attraction to him.  She bristled every time Yuri and Flynn hung out together to play video games, which they didn't do too often, but regularly enough that Judy teased Yuri about having scheduled play-dates.  

Yuri wasn't sure if he should ask Flynn about Sodia or not.  The guy seemed uncomfortable with Sodia's possessiveness, but he never actually called her on it either.  Yuri didn't want to step in on a touchy subject if he didn't have to.  

Besides, the raptor eggs were in the incubators now, surrounded by thermal lamps and imaging scanners that recorded the development of the fetuses.  Yuri was spending more time in the labs already, talking to the eggs and generally annoying, or maybe amusing, Rita with his insistence that it would be good for the development of the raptors to hear speech outside their eggs.  Female raptors, he'd told her, would make noises fussing over their nests.  

"You're not the raptors' mother," Rita had told him in exasperation, though a smile had tugged at her face.

"Trainer, adoptive parent, concerned guardian..." Yuri trailed off with a laugh before singing, "you say to-ma-to, I say to-mah-to..." then ducking as Rita swiped her clipboard at him.

"At least you don't sing off key," she huffed.  "I can't wait for these girls to hatch, though, so you'll stop invading my lab."

"You'd have banned me if I were that annoying," Yuri teased back good naturedly.

"So... I've got a question for you.  Purely hypothetical.  But if..." Rita crossed her arms defensively, "if say, I knew someone who had a... a crush on Estelle... what advice would be appropriate for... encouraging that person to act on said... crush?"

Judy, Yuri decided, was going to be absolutely livid that she'd missed this in favor of inspecting the nearly-finished enclosure.  He'd have to rub it in later.

"Well, considering that, non-hypothetically, I'm pretty sure Estelle has a crush on you," Yuri grinned, enjoying Rita's startled spluttering, "anyone who isn't you, hypothetical or not, doesn't stand much of a chance.  However, if I were giving advice to you on asking Estelle out, then I'd tell you to just ask her out.  Text her or email her first if you can't find the words when you're actually speaking to her, but all you need to do is ask and she'll say yes.  Just... make it clear its a date.  As in, actually call it a date, so there's no misunderstandings later.  Because I'm pretty sure Estelle doesn't think you'd be interested in dating her, whether its because of the age gap, which really isn't that much, or because she just doesn't realize you're attracted to women, I have no idea."

Rita stared at him, gaping in shock.  After a long moment, she sat down on the nearest chair, still staring at him.

"You should blink," Yuri advised her.  "You'll dry your eyes out at this rate."  Humming softly, he turned back to the raptor eggs and went back to fussing over them while Rita processed everything.

"She has a crush on me?" Rita finally squeaked.

"Ah, the main processor has rebooted," Yuri murmured to the eggs with a grin.

* * *

Yuri knew it was late, but this was the first chance he'd had and... well, hopefully Flynn wouldn't mind having someone knocking at his door just after midnight to share some good news.

Flynn opened the door to reveal himself in a worn tank with pajama pants slung just a little low on one side.  He didn't have the slightly disheveled look of someone who'd been sleeping, though, which was good.  He did look a little worried though, probably because of the manic grin on Yuri's face.

"The raptors hatched!"

A smile lit up Flynn's face and he gestured for Yuri to come inside.

"I'm sorry to bother you so late, but I just... I had to share with you.  The eggs were rocking this morning when I went in to the lab and by the afternoon six of the eight eggs hatched.  Two of them never so much as twitched, but the other six..." Yuri grinned.  "I've been looking after them all day and now that Judy's taking a turn..."

"I wasn't asleep yet, so I'm glad you decided to stop by.  When do you have to be back tomorrow?"

"Noon," Yuri told him.  "I'm so wired, I don't know how I'll be able to sleep, though."  

Changing the subject back to the raptors, he rambled, "they're so small.  The first one to climb out of her shell had these purple stripes that reminded me of this dog I used to have with really unusual fur, so I named her after him.  Repede.  Judy named the second one out Ba'ul.  We've also got Donna, Pharaoh, Kitsune, and Rose."

"Sounds like Rita got into the naming for Donna and Rose," Flynn observed, putting on a kettle for tea.  "She's a Doctor Who fan, so she likes to name the dinosaurs after the Doctor's companions."

"I had wondered," Yuri admitted.

"Do you like Chamomile tea?" Flynn asked, "it'll help you unwind and get some rest.  You'll need it, baby dinosaurs are like baby birds.  When they aren't sleeping, they're starving and bratty about it."

"Chamomile's fine," Yuri told him.  "Thanks for putting up with me," he added.

"Oh, I want to hear all about it," Flynn told him, rejoining him on the couch while waiting for the water to boil.  "Repede was the first one out of the shells, you said?"  Yuri nodded to him.  "Tell me all about her."

Later, after drinking his tea and keeping Flynn up way too late with stories about Repede's first steps and her first pounce, taking out a piece of ground meat with ferocious gusto, and the first time Repede looked up at Yuri and crooned at him... well, eventually, Yuri fell asleep with his head pillowed on Flynn's shoulder.  He didn't notice things fingers carding gently through his hair or the slightly off-key humming as the blond smiled in enjoyment of the raven-haired man's presence.

* * *

Yuri woke up the next morning around ten, cocooned in a blanket on Flynn's couch, and a note on the table asking him out to breakfast the following morning as a date.

Grinning, Yuri penned an acceptance and then headed back to his apartment.  He supposed that answered the question about whether Flynn was dating Sodia since Flynn wasn't the kind of person who'd cheat.

She'd probably flip once she found out, but... Yuri couldn't bring himself to care.  He had baby raptors and a date with Flynn.  

Life was good.

* * *

Rose was the first to get sick.  She was the first to die, too.

Flynn held Yuri all night as he cried.  First generations of a new type of dinosaur tended to be unstable and didn't often live long after hatching, if they hatched at all.  Yuri had known this, but getting hit with the reality of it...

The morning after Rose died, Donna and Phaeroh were sick too.

* * *

Repede and Ba'ul were the last to get sick.  Yuri wasn't sure who told Flynn, because he couldn't spare the time.  He had to stay and be there for Repede.  He didn't want her to be alone and Judy was doing the same for Ba'ul... their first two raptors and, at the moment, their last ones too.

But someone told Flynn because he came into the lab, bringing food with him and sneaking Raven in too (who went straight to Judy).  Then, when everything he'd brought with him was distributed, Flynn settled beside Yuri and introduced himself to Repede.

The baby raptor seemed to soak up the attention, lifting her head and peering up at the blond before shoving her snout under his hand for petting.

"She likes you," Yuri told him, leaning into the arm Flynn had put around his shoulders for comfort.

"She's pretty," Flynn said, obligingly petting the demanding raptor.

That night, the raptors fell into a natural, unlabored sleep and were clearly better in the morning.  Their appetites returned and, out of a litter of six hatch-lings, only two survived.

* * *

The second set of raptor eggs were six eggs, of which only three hatched.  But these three - Noishe, Martha, and Lambert - didn't fall ill after hatching the way the first group did, leaving Yuri and Judith with five raptors total to move into the enclosure once they'd determined the group big enough to leave the lab space.

The raptors were friendly, almost ridiculously so.  Much to Flynn's dismay, Yuri took to going into the enclosure whenever he liked, training the raptors in person instead of from afar and even keeping a chair in there that he could sit on while reading to the raptors since the dinosaurs, particularly Repede, seemed to like Yuri's voice.  Judy took her cues from Yuri and would also treat the enclosure's entrance as a revolving door.

It took convincing Flynn to go on a picnic in the enclosure with him for Yuri to show the blond that all the raptors, not just Repede and Ba'ul, were friendly and far more interested in eating their sandwiches than eating the humans.  In fact, Flynn was amused to realize that Noishe was rather afraid of everything except her fellow raptors and the human trainers.  He somehow found himself petting her soothingly when some noise from outside startled her into hiding behind him.

Yet, despite Yuri's rather undeniable success with the raptors, there was a growing unrest regarding the raptors.  Someone had leaked the velociraptors existence to public and all the news stations, journalists, and popular news bloggers were dragging out all the interviews of the survivors of the first park.  Then his name got mixed up in the whole thing and, much to Yuri's dismay, his supposedly sealed juvie record was leaked online.  He'd gone through a brief klepto phase after his parents death and gotten into a few fights.  None of it had continued past turning fifteen and getting adopted by Niren, but it had happened and he was kind of embarrassed by having it all dragged back out.  It was irritating to have all his hard work as an adult dismissed by ignorant assholes just because he'd screwed up a few times as a kid.

After talking things over with Estelle, and the legal department, however, Yuri found himself slated for interviews of his own which was... daunting, really.  He hated doing interviews.  He much preferred doing a little blogging of his own.  

* * *

_So, I've backed off talking about my work since taking my new job at Ingen these last several months.  But with recent developments as they are, I've gotten the okay to discuss my job and I've decided to do something I never thought I'd consider... I'm going to de-anonymize this blog._

_My name Yuri Lowell and I train velociraptors.  I dare anyone to top that because there's absolutely no job I can think of more awesome._

_With that out of the way, I want to clarify a lot of misconceptions that have sprung up in the past few weeks thanks to the raptor stuff getting leaked last month, well before our raptors were supposed to get their first press release.  First and most important is that unlike the previous raptors, these are actually made from velociraptor dna.  Despite being called velociraptors, the original park's raptors, and thus our neighboring island's raptors, were made from utahraptor DNA.  In other words, they were not velociraptors.  Jurassic World has been open about that fact since the park opened and raptors weren't even on the table then.  Yet most reporters insist on misrepresenting the facts when it comes to the velociraptors and have practically ignored for years a rather interesting story on how Dr. Garruda may or may not have purposefully used the wrong DNA when creating the utahraptors for Jurassic Park._

_At any rate, you may be wondering why it matters whether the velociraptors are made of genuine, grade A velociraptor DNA instead of utahraptor DNA.  Well, what's the difference between a schnauzer and a German shepherd?  Velociraptors are smaller than utahraptors and have a slightly slower top speed_ _..._

* * *

Naturally its in the midst of the media blitz that Estelle springs on them a surprise visit from one of the paleontologists who visited the original park and was nearly eaten by the utahraptors.  Also some irritating chaostitian who was also at the original park, but was nearly eaten by a T-rex.

Lloyd Irving and Zelos Wilder, each authors of their own best selling novels about their survival of the park (Irving's was fairly factual and full of fascinating information on the raptors, which Yuri had later used as a major reference for his papers on raptor socialization; Wilder's read like an action adventure thriller but with more chaos).  So on the one hand, Yuri was absolutely thrilled to meet them.  Wilder was no more irritating than Raven and Yuri was fairly inured to that these days, but Irving was one of Yuri's heroes.

So it was pretty disappointing to realize that Irving not only wanted the raptor project shut down, but the raptors either euthanized or released on the neighboring island to die incredibly painful deaths when the other predators found them and ripped them to pieces.  Well, that was an over exaggeration.  Irving didn't actually want the raptors to die in pain, but he didn't seem to understand that was what the result of taking his tone-deaf suggestions to heart would entail.

That was all before Irving even saw the new raptors, though the man's stubborn opinion remained even after Yuri explained the velociraptor vs utahraptor dna mixup and clarified, half a dozen times, whether Irving was talking about their actual velociraptors or the old park's utahraptors, trying without any success to nail down the actual difference in the man's mind.

So, Yuri felt he should be excused his recklessness when, upon finally arriving at the enclosure, Irving saw the physical differences between the raptors he remembered and the new ones in the enclosure and maintained that he was thoroughly unconvinced the differences made... well, a difference.

"This must be why people should never meet their heroes," Yuri finally snapped.  "They innevitably turn out to be morons."  Then he opened the outer door to the enclosure, walked in, lowered that door and, ignoring the shouts of dismay from the guests and Judy's manic laughter, opened then inner door, walked into the interior of the enclosure, and whistled for Repede.

Covered in gray and purple feathers, Repede was a gorgeous sight to behold and Yuri settled into the chair he kept hidden inside the enclosure, greeted his favorite raptor with glee, and then started reading a ridiculously bad bodice-ripper romance that Judy had promised would make him laugh at least once a chapter.  He read it out loud, of course, for the raptors to enjoy and kept up a running commentary about how truly ludicrous the excuse plot for all the sex scenes were.  He passed an hour that way, as the other raptors came and went - each demanding petting before moving on - before finally leaving the enclosure.  

Wilder and Irving were still there, Zelos having been giggling over Yuri's choice in literature and adding a few choice comments of his own while Lloyd stayed completely silent.  Yuri gave Irving a hard look.

"Now, are you going to concede that you have no idea what the fuck you're talking about when it comes to the new raptors and the safety problems they represent or are you going to continue making an ass of yourself?"

Lloyd rather sheepishly apologized and started asking about the feathers.  Yuri ended up forgiving the man later that evening when he found the paleontologists blog updated with a post about having come off as a complete twit to someone he rather now respected... and needing to update his book with information regarding the velociraptors having actually been utahraptors because Dr. Garruda had been even more of an idiot than he'd believed.

* * *

Some idiot had opened the raptor cage.

By 'some idiot', Yuri means Sodia.

She'd been intending for the raptors to attack and kill Yuri and then be put down, the whole thing written off as faulty code in the gate system.

Her first mistake was thinking the raptors would ever harm Yuri.  Her second mistake was forgetting about the damn cameras.  Her third... well... she forgot about Judy.

Scary, scary Judy.

Yuri had been more bemused than anything, corralling his girls back into their paddock then stalking off to find Judy in order to pull her off her victim.  Sodia was then taken away by security.

Later - much later - Yuri, Flynn, and the others get called in and allowed to see the video of Sodia's confession, as taken by security.  Flynn looks betrayed the whole time and Yuri wishes he could do more than just hold him, but its all he can do for the moment and he just hopes its enough.

Later, arms wrapped around Yuri's shoulders and gripping him tightly, Flynn mutters, "I'm so glad those raptors decided you're mommy."

It's probably inappropriate, but Yuri laughs anyway.


End file.
